Mosaic Adventures
by MosaicArts
Summary: Under peculiar circumstances of which could only be interpreted as destiny, a person still in his youth by the name of Mosaic ends up in a new, extraordinary, somewhat wacky place. This very land known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Here, he and the many of those he goes on to meet have many adventures, lots of experiences, both positive and negative, and the many things in between.
1. Chapter 1

**I: Fiendish Plan** **  
**

 _ **"Evil never rests...a principal that all heroes know. Everytime a hero, or heroes bests his or her nemesis in conflict, within what seems to generally not be long at all, they're already up and kicking again, bent on their goal once more. However, in the life of a hero, or heroes, this often comes to be the expectation they must deal with on a typical basis, their normal agenda, their story. In other words, just another day of familiarity for them. And as evil never rests, good cannot either. And today, a tyrant who refuses to give up his goal would continue to be an example that this policy continues to stand true."**_

The evil Bowser, king of the Koopas was in the depths of his castle, sitting on his throne in a large, decorative room. This room of which was lined with pillars on either side leading up to it, with Koopatrol guards standing on either side of the throne throughout the walkway, wielding spears in their hands. And the path leading up to the throne being lined with a red carpet, plotting and scheming to come up with an evil plan that he believed would allow him to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom once and for all.

"Hmm, let's see, I could kidnap Peach again; Then again, maybe not, that's never worked out," Bowser thought to himself. "Or maybe, I could steal one of those powerful star-based artifacts, such as the star rod or a grand star. Ehh, been there, done that, easier said than done anyway," Bowser continued to think. "Wait a minute...I have an idea!" Bowser figured out. "What if...I was to attack the Mushroom Kingdom with airships like I did a while back that one time, but this time, with a spin on it? Rather than assigning each of my kids with a kingdom, invading the kings' castles, stealing their wands, and transforming them into different creatures, I would instead have our entire armada attack the different lands at once! It's brilliant!" Bowser continued with his thoughts. "Now let's bring them over," Bowser thought. "Bowser Jr.! Kamek! Larry, Morton, Wendy, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy, Ludwig! Get over here!" Bowser then roared. All of them quickly rush into Bowser's throne room upon his call. "It's time for us all to go somewhere," Bowser said.

"Wee! We're going on vacation right?!" Bowser Jr. exclaimed excitedly.

"No, we're not, now I'd like all of you to start preparing an armada, we're attacking the Mushroom Kingdom!" Bowser responded.

"Ah man...That's cool too!" Bowser Jr said.

"But umm, your wickedness, haven't you tried that multiple times before-" Kamek started before Bowser interrupted.

"I know what I'm doing this time, rather than send one airship to each land, we're going to attack each land one by one with our entire armada at once!

"But what if it ends up not working out for one reason or another?" Kamek questions, still not set on their plan.

Bowser responded, "It's simple what we'll do, I'll tell you as we're preparing."

 **II: In A Faraway House**

Meanwhile, rather far away from Bowser's Castle, in the lush, green, plainlands known as "Mushroom Plains". There is one peculiar, two-story house located in the city, lives Mosaic, along with the rest of the Mosaic group. Inside on the two-story, was Mosaic's room, inside this room, with a window to right, was Mosaic's bed, with a dark green frame, bed sheets, pillows, and a blue mushroom pattern blanket. On the side of the bed was a brown, double drawer desk, the top of which stood a clock in the shape of a starman, bright yellow with the time displaying in place of where the eyes would normally be located, with the time displaying as 8:29 AM. The room itself was average size, it wasn't that big, however, it wasn't that small either, it was around 7 feet in height, 10 feet in width, and 10 feet in length, the walls of the room were painted blue, with a couple of pictures here and there.

And finally, there was Mosaic himself, whom at the moment was sleeping in their bed. Mosaic in appearance looked oddly similar to a certain popular figure of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario. Like Mario, Mosaic generally wore overalls, an undershirt, shoes, a hat, and a pair of gloves and even had the same eye color as them, sapphire blue; but unlike Mario's clothes, his hat and undershirt he wore was green, his overalls were a shade of gold, his shoes were red, and finally, his gloves had a rather odd shade, blue, unlike the usual white. At the moment, however, he wasn't wearing his regular outfit, he had his hat off on a wall hook, and instead was wearing pajamas that were long sleeved, and covered his whole body. The fabric was shaded green and had a blue star pattern across the whole thing, with a zipper running down the shirt portion. Suddenly, Mosaic's alarm clock went off, Mosaic is woken up by the noise, and lets out a yawn, then looks at his alarm clock, the time being displayed now as 8:30, and shuts it off to stop the sound.

"That was today?" Mosaic said to himself, then getting out his bed and heads to the closet on his right near the bed and opens it to change into his clothes for the day, it never took long for him to get dressed as he wore the same outfit each day and had an entire closet full of them. As changed clothes within the closet, he yelled "Hoops! Get ready! Our picnic meeting is today!"

Hoops was a member of the Mosaic group, he bore the appearance of an insect, except that he was rather large, around the size of a house pillow, hhad a rounded body shape and five spots on his back lighter than the rest of his body, five legs on either side, each ending with a white, circular glove. His face was black with two large, oval-shaped eyes with white scleras, each with two small, shiny blue pupils. A Hoopster. Though they normally were red, Hoops' body was a dark shade green, as well this, Hoopsters were generally smaller, around the size of a basketball.

Hoops, annoyed by being awakened so suddenly said, "Wha...really?". "Well, is there any chance of us going to a movie afterward?" Hoops then asked.

"As weird as those things would go together, I feel we may be able to," Mosaic responded.

"In that case, I'm bringing 'these' As he said it, he pressed his legs against the wall and climbed it as though Hoopsters were already capable of doing so, he was a special case, as he seemed to be able to climb up about any surface. Hoops was climbing the wall to reach a black glasses case. When he reached it, he opened it, revealing there to be not glasses, but a pair glasses with one blue lens and one red lens, a pair of 3D glasses.

"Ah, I should wake up Berry and Rosy and tell them to get ready," Mosaic said, leaving their own room and walking down the hallway to the door to Berry and Rosy's room. He then knocked on their door and said "Berry, Rosy! Could you guys wake up? We need to get ready for the picnic and be at the park by 9:00 AM."

Rosy was a Porcopo, a small mammalian creature that's appearance somewhat resembled that of a porcupine or hedgehog. Porcopos were usually purple or black, however, in Rosy's case, her fur was a dark shade of pink. And her eyes a dark shade of brown.

Berry, on the other hand, was a Yoshi, which was anthropomorphic dinosaurs that commonly had saddles on their backs and wore a pair of shoes. As well as this, Yoshi's commonly came in many different colors. Berry, however, was still a baby, therefore, he was much smaller and didn't have a saddle yet. In terms of appearance he had purple skin, his belly was light blue, he commonly wore a pair of red shoes, and his eyes were the same shade as Rosy's, brown. Rosy jumped awake upon hearing the knocking.

"Oh yeah, the picnic was today, guess I just didn't have my alarm set," Rosy said, then shaking Berry to wake them up, as the two of them shared a bed.

"Yoshi?" Berry said as they were woken up, due to their incapability of speaking any language other than their native one, being Yoshi.

"Great, your awake, now we need to be ready in the next ten minutes if we want to make it to the park on time" explained Rosy.

Berry responded in his language, then got out of bed to get ready.

Rosy went to the brown dresser on the other side of the room and climbed onto the desk part with a large mirror and opens a drawer. In this drawer were several beauty related instruments, such as lipstick, eyeshadow, lip gloss, blush, fur treatment gel, a brush, etc. she pulled out the brush, a bottle of fur treatment gel, and eyeshadow. However, after looking at the eyeshadow, put it away again immediately and said to herself "hmm, maybe someday," and instead began brushing her fur.

While she did this, Berry put on his pair of shoes. Berry then remembered he had no hair or fur nor does he wear any other kind of clothing, so he was already prepared. Rosy finished brushing and started applying the fur gel and spread it all over herself. Berry, waiting for her to finish, looked her direction. Rosy told him not to worry and that she'll take just a sec. Which indeed she took, she then headed back over to the table near there be where she put the only accessory she wore in her fur; a red bow, which she picked up and put on.

"Alright, I'm finished getting ready, is there anything you needed to do Berry?" Rosy asked.

Berry gave a response, which Rosy, understanding him, responded.

"If you're hungry, well, you would be knowing you and it's the morning; I believe we're having breakfast at our picnic, which gives us even more reason why we should hurry."

Berry asked Rosy in his language if they'll have Yoshi Berries.

Rosy responded, "I'm not sure, we're aren't the ones bringing the food," to which Berry acknowledges her. "Now I want to see if-" Rosy started when suddenly she heard loud pounding on the door.

This pounding was Hoops, who yelled through the door, "Rosy! You better not be holding us up."

"Of course not, we were just finishing up in fact," Rosy responded defensively.

"Alright then...guess I'll just wait with Mosaic downstairs," then heading downstairs, Rosy and Berry hearing his footsteps fade out as he headed down them.

"So, are you sure you're ready to go?" Rosy checked with Berry.

Berry responded he is in his language, then asking Rosy if she had nothing else to do to prepare makeup-wise.

"I'll check in the mirror one more time," Rosy sais, heading to the mirror. Rosy took a look at herself, vainly saying "I think that I look good, naturally."

Unamused, Berry groans under their breath but says he'd agree and says now he wants to go in his language, which Rosy agreed.

Meanwhile downstairs, Mosaic and Hoops were both sitting on the black couch in the living room, watching a game show on TV known as 'Liability' Hoops heard footsteps and looked at the stairs, where he heard them coming from, surprised to see Rosy and Berry there.

"Berry and I are ready to leave, are you guys as well?" Rosy informed Hoops and Mosaic.

Mosaic looks away from the TV at Rosy and responded, "Ah, you're already ready to go?"

Rosy responds, "Yeah... I just said that."

Hoops, picking up the remote to turn off the TV said, "How surprising, because I totally expected you to be finished already," with sarcasm in his voice.

Rosy rolled her eyes, however ignoring him said "We need to get going to the park now because we need to be there in…" stopping mid-sentence to look at the blue, mushroom-shaped clock in the room. "thirteen minutes!" Rosy exclaimed, she then rushed over to the door and jumped up to the doorknob in an attempt to open it, but fell off it, however rolling into a ball before she hit the ground to make a recovery, rolling away from the door a bit. "I forgot that I don't have opposable thumbs," Rosy said, embarrassed.

Hoops then quickly ran to the door and reached for the doorknob to open the door himself, telling Rosy "Exactly," before running out of the door down the concrete path in front of their house to make his way to Mushroom Plains.

Ignoring Hoops' attitude, Mosaic stated, "We should follow Hoops and catch up with him."

Though a bit annoyed, Rosy agreed and started heading out the door, with Mosaic and Berry following and Mosaic closing and locking the door behind them.

 **III: On The Path**

Mosaic, Rosy, and Berry followed Hoops down the path he went to the park they were heading, by name known as Vibrant Park. The scenery around the path was an interesting sight. The Mosaic Group lived in a suburban residential area, with sidewalks going down multiple different paths with many houses, coming in several different shapes, some had the shape of giant mushrooms, these were generally called 'Mushroom Houses' while some had a more casual look, by Mosaic's standards anyway. This wasn't all there was scenery wise, in the sky, on the ground, and all around, there were floating bricks and yellow boxes with ? marks imprinted on them which had many different things in them quite often. And finally, going underground, there were pipes that came in many different colors, green, red, white, purple, you name it. These pipes were commonly referred to as 'Warp Pipes'.

Mosaic, Rosy, and Berry caught up with Hoops, and Mosaic asked Hoops to slow down so they can catch up.

Hoops responded, "It's not my fault I'm faster than-"

Mosaic interrupted him mid-sentence after checking his watch and realized they have ten minutes to get there and are five blocks away. Then saying "Actually Hoops it's fine…"

which Hoops responded, asking why.

Running while doing so, Mosaic responded, "let's just say whoever makes it to the park last has to stay behind to help with cleanup because we have 10 minutes to get there!" Then running ahead of the group.

Hoops in response to this said, "Oh that's how we're doing this? Well, that isn't going to be me!" and then ran after Mosaic.

Rosy and Berry, realizing it's probable neither of them would beat Mosaic nor Hoops in a footrace, look at each other and realize that whichever of them make it last will be the one helping with cleanup. Both not wanting to do so, both started racing with one another as well.

The Mosaic group arrived at Vibrant park, and passed the entrance, which had a large sign in colorful letters reading the name "Vibrant Park" across the top of the entrance on the stone hedge around the entrances of the park, which they finally made it to in the order of Hoops, Mosaic, Rosy and Berry.

"Well, sorry Berry, but looks like your helping with cleanup," Rosy told Berry.

Berry whined because of this, however, calmed down pretty quick.

"Alright, we're here with five minutes to spare! Now let's go find where they are," Mosaic stated. And with that the Mosaic Group then begins to walk deeper into the park, many people were there that day, Toads, Yoshi's, as well as the occasional Koopa Troopa.

As they walked, Hoops asked, "So who is it that we were meeting with again? I kind of forgot."

"Oh yeah, I remember," Mosaic responded, "it's...actually I forgot too." Mosaic then admitted. Mosaic then asked Rosy, "Do you remember?"

"I do," Rosy responded. And then stated, "We're meeting with Team S.M.B.X correct?".

Mosaic and Hoops both in unison respond to Rosy, "Oh Yeah!"

Hoops then told Mosaic, "Jinx! You owe me a Maple leaf,".

"Darn it," Mosaic responded.

Hoops, however, added that it's good and that he was just messing around.

"Eh, it's okay, anyway back on topic," Mosaic said as he changed the subject. "If I remember correctly, Team S.M.B.X consists of that plumber in red and blue overalls, Mario, his brother Luigi, their girlfriend, Princess Peach, and his friend Toad, correct?" Mosaic asked.

"Uh, Mosaic, there was someone else too?" Hoops reminded Mosaic.

Mosaic immediately realized he did, and said "Oh yeah, and that other friend of his, Link is his name,"

Which Hoops said, "mhmm," to him ensuring his statement.

"Ah, and we're meeting with them here, and we just need to find them," Mosaic said, then starting to look around along with Hoops, Rosy, and Berry but with no luck. "I can't see them anywhere around here," said Mosaic.

"Me neither, it's hard to see past all these people here," Rosy then added.

"Huh, I wonder if they sent us a letter saying they rescheduled or something, I don't remember checking the mailbox this morning," Mosaic continued.

As Mosaic talked, Hoops was still looking around, when finally, something in the distance caught his eye. It was Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad and Link, Team S.M.B.X, all sitting on a large red-white diamond patterned blanket with a large brown, unopened picnic basket. "It's possible they did that," Rosy said to Mosaic. Just as she was about finished with her sentence, Hoops dashed off in the direction of Team S.M.B.X, shouting to the others while doing so that he found them. Mosaic looks in the direction Hoops is running, then seeing what he is running towards.

"Ah, so they didn't reschedule after all," Mosaic stated. "Well, let's go over to them then," Mosaic then said, going Hoops' direction along with Rosy and Berry.

 **IV: Picnic Time**

At the picnic blanket, Mario made conversation with the others, starting with, "Where-a is the Mosaic Group? We asked them to meet us here at 9:00 A-a M but I don't-a see them anywhere," in his Italian accent.

"They must just be running a few minutes behind, they'll probably be here any minute now," Peach responded to Mario.

"I hope Peach is-a right, otherwise im-ma get worried about them," said Luigi.

"Luigi, you're being a bit quick to assume, they could have just misread the time on the invitation, I feel you're being a bit quick to jump to conclusions," Link told Luigi.

"I guess you're-a right, but it still makes me worried," Luigi replied.

As Luigi said this, Toad was looking behind him and saw someone running their direction, this someone, of course, being Hoops, which he was able to immediately tell by their green color and pair of 3D glasses. Toad then attempts to get the other's attention and tell them, but Luigi and Link were too busy talking while Mario and Peach were too busy listening in on their conversation to hear.

"But anyway, I feel your cowardliness is something you-" "GUYS!" Toad interrupted Link.

But before he could say what he was trying to inform them, Hoops came leaping over Luigi and right in the middle of the picnic blanket, his 3D glasses falling off as he fell, shocking Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Link.

"Umm, we can talk later," Link told Luigi.

"Oh umm...hey there Hoops, are the rest of the Mosaic Group coming?" Peach said, ignoring his surprise entrance.

"Hi Peach, and oh, yeah, they should be coming now," Hoops responded.

Team S.M.B.X each looked in the direction Hoops came from and indeed saw Mosaic, Rosy, and Berry coming their way.

"Hello guys, here we are, on time," Mosaic said.

"Or-a are you?" Mario responded, laughing a bit after saying it.

"Umm, what?" Mosaic replied.

Toad then checked his pocket watch, seeing that it read exactly 9:00 AM sharp on it, then telling Mosaic not to worry and that he's good.

"Ah, alright," Mosaic replied.

Berry then starts going on about something in Yoshi.

Hoops translated for the others, being able to understand Berry's words like Rosy could.

"He asked what you guys brought to the picnic as he's hungry and wants to eat," Hoops translated.

"Hey, don't-a worry, we, or more specifically, mainly Peach brought a good number of things," said Luigi in response to Berry.

"Now Link, could you-a open the-a picnic basket and put it in the middle?" Luigi asked him.

"Sure," Link responded, then picking the picnic basket up and moving it to the center so that everyone could reach it.

"Alright you guys, this is what I brought," Peach started, to Berry's excitement. "I brought pancakes topped with powdered sugar with maple syrup for drizzling, around seventeen to be exact. Nine blueberry muffins, 2 banana bunches, and a honeydew melon" Peach began to list.

Berry was about to ask something in his language, but Rosy interrupted him knowing what he was about to say and asked Peach, "Did you bring any Yoshi Berries?"

"Oh, I did in fact, I brought red, green and pink ones." Peach replied.

Berry expressed disappointment in his language, which Rosy translated to be because she didn't get any blue ones it seemed, Berry's favorite.

"Oh, i'm sorry about that Berry," Peach told Berry.

"Hey Berry, it's kind of hard to come by blue ones anyway so it makes sense and would be expected that she forgot them," Mosaic said to Berry.

Peach then continued to list more things, saying, "As well as those things, I also brought some apple juice, orange juice, butter, yogurt, peachy peach juice, and multivitamins."

"That sounds good, let's eat!" Rosy said, Berry also wanting to as well as he stated in his language.

After everyone made their choices in food and had eaten for a while, as they continued eating, they began to chat.

"So Mosaic, how do you-a feel about this new world you've been-a living in and having a new way of-a life?" Mario asked Mosaic.

"It actually hasn't been too bad, if much at all, in fact, I definitely find it more interesting than my homeworld," Mosaic responded to him.

"You mean...Earth, as you call it right?" Peach asked.

"Yeah, that place," Mosaic replied to Peach.

"Wait, your from another world?" Hoops said to Mosaic, seemingly surprised.

"Of course, I even told you one time I am," Mosaic responded.

Pausing a bit before replying, Hoops said "I actually do recall you saying that, guess I just forgot about it."

Jumping into the conversation, Rosy said, "Speaking of being from different worlds, isn't Link from a different world too?"

"Yeah, I am. From a place called Hyrule, but I ended up here one day because I was in Hyrule Field at some point and saw some strange vortex, and curious of where it would go, jumped into it, and it lead me here," Link informed.

"Where you eventually found us, correct?" Toad asked Link.

"Well, it was more that you guys found me, but I guess you could say that too," Link replied. Then continuing. Link started to talk with the others about how he eventually became the 5th member of their group they formed around six years ago, Team S.M.B.X.

amidst Link's talking however, Mosaic was looking up at the sky, his attention seemingly on something else.

The thing that he saw was several giant aircrafts looming over the sky above them. airships to be exact. Despite their distance, Mosaic notices close details on them, one of which being the weapons on them, which there were loads of cannonball blasters and flame tanks and such on them.

 **V: Disruption**

One of the airships then fired something right where Team S.M.B.X and The Mosaic Group were sitting. This object was black and metallic, had a short rope at the top protruding from a metallic ring, or a fuse, and a pair of yellow shoes. A bob-omb. Mosaic, having seen this tried to get everyone's attention, but none of them heard him. Even when the mass of one of the airships blocked the sun out, still, nobody seemed to notice. As the bomb continued to fall, Mosaic once again yelled, "Guys..." this time a bit louder, trying to get their attention.

As everyone still continued to chatter, eventually Toad noticed what's off and said, "Wait, why is it so dark?"

Immediately after Toad said this, the bob-omb lands right in the middle of the picnic blanket, with the fuse on the bob-omb being very short, about to blow.

Mosaic then shouted, "Guys! Look out!" Everyone having has noticed the bomb at this point, quickly jumped away from it.

Everyone except for Berry that is, whom was about to take his first taste of a Yoshi berry the whole picnic, but was then grabbed by Hoops before he could to save him from the blast.

Berry then complained in his language about not even being able to taste any Yoshi berries.

Hoops, understanding him asked, "Is it really that important right now considering someone just tried to bomb us?"

"I think I just-a found our-a culprit," Mario said, pointing towards the airships in the sky.

The airships then began to fire more projectiles such as bob-bombs and cannonballs all over the park, to everyone's terror. This sent many passersby running away frantically in many directions. The group then all took notice of something coming down from the airships; rope ladders. These ladders went far enough to reach the ground, and then notice many Goombas, Koopa Troopa, Hammer Bros, Fire Bros, Boomerang Bros, etc. coming down the rope ladders from the ships, whom then began to run after and attack the fleeing citizens.

"Maybe we should make like a banana like everyone else and split," Luigi said, then preparing to run, when Mario grabbed him by the overall strap and stopped him.

"Luigi, true heroes never-a flee and stand their-a ground, therefore, we are not-a going to-a backdown and-a fight!" Mario declared. Mario then asked the others, "Now, do you guys think we should kick some troopa butt?"

"YEAH!" Peach, Toad, Link, Mosaic, Hoops and Rosy yelled. Rosy, noticing Berry's silence, nudged him to join them.

Despite the fact that Berry didn't want to fight, being of more of the pacifist kind, he put on a face, then saying "Yeah, let's do it!" in his language.

Mario then begins, "Alright then, on the-a count of 5, 5...4..-" suddenly, a hammer goes flying his way, which with quick reaction time, he dodges, and looks to his right, seeing that a hammer bro hurled it at him. On the other side of the group approached a boomerang bro, with several goombas and Koopa troopas, notably wearing shades and spiked bracelets, some with wings and some without at their aid, surrounding the nine on the other side of them. "Or, they'll bring the-a fight to-a us," Mario said, then continuing saying "Then in that case...Let's-a go!" then forming a flame in his hand, a fireball to be exact and then hurling it at the hammer bro.

The group then all prepared to fight with their respective form of combat, Luigi pulled out his hammer nervously, but rushed towards their enemies with it. Peach pulled out her frying pan that she commonly keep on hand to use it as a weapon. Toad prepared to use what seems to be martial arts, Link reached into a holder on his right thigh and pulled out a sword, then pulling out a blue shield with decorative markings on it, a hylian shield. Mosaic focused energy in his hand, which formed a light blue aura which then forms into a ball, and hurls it at a Koopa troopa, which freezes them solid. Hoops got a running start to prepare for a jump, and made a large leap, clearing the gang of enemies surrounding them, then rushing towards a nearby ? block. Rosy curled her body into a ball and began spinning rapidly, and rolled straight into the direction of a goomba with it. As the battle outbroke, many things happened at once.

Mario was surrounded by Koopa troops on both sides, putting his wits of dealing with them to the test as he fought them off.

Hoops made his way to the ? block and bashed it. Releasing from it a flower, this flower had red petals, creating an oval shape, and a green stem with two petals on either side. This was a fire flower. Hoops was about to jump atop the block to grab it, however, a goomba comes rushing quickly his way and jumps in the air and down on him, turning himself upside down while doing so, attempting to headbonk him. Hoops dodges the attack and then counters by throwing himself into the goomba, tackling them and sending them flying into a noteblock on the ground, knocking them out. Hoops then jumps atop the block, grabbing the fire flower. Hoops' body underwent a change when he did this, his normally dark green body had now become a shade of fiery red. This was an effect of acquiring certain power-ups, however, as he was used to it didn't acknowledge it and instead created a dark green flame ball in his hand.

"Guess this'll have to do, but it'll work," Hoops said to himself. He then noticed a boomerang bro coming his way and hurl a boomerang at him, which he easily avoids thanks to his agility, then countering with a fireball, which misses, Hoops decides to take a different approach, running towards the boomerang bro.

Meanwhile, Peach and Link were working together to handle the incoming threats, with Peach handling the grounded foes while Link dealt with the aerial ones. Peach bashes the incoming koopas and goombas with her pan, and at one point a koopa gets dangerously close. She then jumps up and stomps on the koopa with them being scared into their shell by the impact, in which Peach takes advantage of, picking up the Koopa Troopa and kicking the shell in other incoming foes' directions.

Link, on the other hand, dealt with their aerial foes, firing beams from his sword at the incoming para-koopas as well as goombas flying their way, knocking them out of the sky with his sword beams.

As Peach hit a koopa with her pan, she asked Link, "Just how many of them are there?"

"I'm unsure, but we have no choice but to keep fighting them off," Link responded as he blocked a fireball shot at him.

Meanwhile, Rosy was being pursued by a group of nine goombas, however, after making some distance with them, she turned around, spun into a ball and bowls herself in their direction. The goombas stop cold from fear and all are knocked away various directions as if they were a bunch of bowling pins. Rosy then after rolling back out again, got Berry's attention and told him she had an idea. She then whispered the idea to Berry, which he agreed with. They got into their positions, Berry stood behind Rosy, and the latter as she rolled into a ball yelled "Now!" to Berry. Berry then started kicking Rosy into the foes like a soccer ball, which proved to be rather effective.

Not too far away, Luigi was surrounded on all sides by a hammer bro, a boomerang bro, and two fire bros. "Mario! Help!" Luigi then yelled. Mario, having at this point dealt with the koopa troopa rushed to Luigi's aid. Making a jump over the bros surrounding his brother and near his position. "Great Mario! You're-a here! Now, what do you say we try using our 'Cyclone Technique' as you call it?" Luigi then said to Mario.

"Great idea Luigi!" Mario replied. The Mario bros got into coordination to perform their cyclone technique, Luigi jumped on top of Mario and pulled out his Ultra Hammer, and the two of them started spinning around like...well a cyclone into their enemies, ramming into each of them in quick succession, knocking away the enemies in varying directions. Afterward, Mario and Luigi stopped spinning and the latter got off Mario and put his hammer away.

"Alright, I think we've-a fended them off for-a now," Mario said, then looking in the direction of Peach, Toad, Link and the Mosaic Group to see how they were all doing, seeing they dealt with the enemies attacking them as well. They all then headed into the Mario Bros' direction.

 **VI: What's the Plan?**

"Great-a job guys, we managed to fend them-a off, and I have a rather strong-a hunch who's behind this attack," said Mario.

"Ah, you mean...that guy right?" Mosaic asked Mario.

"Mhmm, Bowser," Mario replied.

"Umm, guys, the airships, their heading in that direction," Hoops informed everyone, pointing at a bunch of colorful hilltops. "Their heading toward those colorful hills, or, Colorful Hills," Hoops continued, and then added, "Whoever named those hills is a genius," in a sarcastic tone.

"I suggest what we do is chase after the airships and infiltrate them, I feel if we're fast enough, we could catch them at Fluffy Heights potentially as it's really high up," Link said, giving his input.

"That sounds like a good idea," Peach said.

"Agreed," Toad added.

"But Link um-" Luigi was about to say before Mario interrupted and then gave his opinion, which he said.

"I think Link's idea could work out-a well if we coordinate right and do something like grab-a hold of the airship's anchors."

"Hmm, Mario may have an idea," Mosaic stated, then asking, "Didn't you and Luigi do that when Bowser attacked the mushroom kingdom with airships several years ago?"

"Indeed we-a did, so it should be able to-a work this time," Mario replied.

Mosaic then started, "Well in that case-"

"Mosaic, shouldn't we chase after the airships before they get too far?" Rosy interrupted.

Mosaic, starting to reply said, "Umm, well…"

Before Hoops then interrupted, telling Rosy, "Mosaic was talking, don't be so disruptive."

"Hoops, no need to be so...burnt up," Berry laughed a bit after noticing Rosy's pun.

"It's fine as I was finished anyway," Mosaic stated.

"All-a right, so that's the-a plan? Chase down Bowser's air fleet, and put a stop to his-a latest scheme?" Mario checked up with everyone.

Everyone, bar Luigi, nodded before he quickly nodded himself.

"Then in that case, once again let's a go!" Mario declared. In the order of Mario, Hoops, Toad, Link, Peach, Mosaic, Rosy, Berry and Luigi, all the nine of them started rushing down the path, heading to the Colorful Hills. Determined to put a stop to Bowser's plans once more…

 **VII: Chase Down**

As the group continued to traverse the path, Mosaic looked on the side of the road and noticed a peculiar object. This object had a narrow, but long cylinder shape in a dark gray shade pointing towards the sky, with a blue portion grounded with a ? print on it. This was a cannon.

"Hmm, that could be an idea," Mosaic stated. This got the attention of the others and caused them to stop running.

"The cannon?" Link asked Mosaic.

"Exactly, if you look at that cannon, and consider the fact that we can swivel it, along with the size of the cannon, which reaches a bit over six feet in length, we could aim it towards the Colorful Hills and save ourselves some time," Mosaic explained, in response to Link.

"In that case what are we waiting for?" Hoops said, then rushing over to the cannon and getting inside of it, swiveling the cannon, then firing himself out of it. "Woo!" he yelled as he went flying in the direction of colorful hills.

"Let's see where he lands." Peach said.

As Hoops flew through the air, he looked down to see where he'd land, seeing he was. about to land in a lake near Colorful Hills. Seeing this, Hoops yelled, "Cannonball!... Literally!" Then making a splash as they submerged.

"Well, only one thing to do…" Link said.

"What is that?" Luigi questioned. "Well, follow his lead of course," Link replied.

Then proceeding to get into the cannon himself and then launching in the direction Hoops did, yelling, "Yeah!" As he did so.

"I agree," Toad said, getting into the cannon himself and launched in the direction of Link and Hoops, following their lead.

This is followed by the others in the order of Berry, Mario, Mosaic, and Peach. Luigi looks inside the cannon and hesitantly gets in realizing there isn't a point in resisting as he's tried to back out of things twice, only failing both times. Just before the cannon launched, Luigi covered their eyes and after they began to fly through the sky they yelled, not in excitement, but terror. At this point everyone had landed in the lake and as Hoops had.

Mario looked up, seeing Luigi is flying toward the lake about the fall in, then saying, "And here comes-a Luigi," due to this. Luigi goes flying into the lake, landing right on top of Hoops.

After resurfacing, Hoops then proceeded to say, "Of all the places, of all the times, why did it have to be here?" in which Peach, Link, and Mosaic just shrug.

"Guys, we have no time to waste, we got to chase after the air fleet!" Toad said, swimming to shore while he did so.

"Right," Peach, Mario, Link, Rosy as well Berry in his language said in unison.

"Hey, could you get off of me?" Hoops asked Luigi.

Straight away, Luigi got off of him, telling him "Okay," then swimming to shore along with the others.

By the time Luigi and Hoops caught up to the others, they see that their at a bunch of hills separating them from Fluffy Heights.

"These hills are too tall for us to jump over, as well as that, I don't see a way around the hills either," Mosaic stated.

"You'd be right about that Mosaic, I don't see a way around either," Link added.

"With how I see there are several solutions to this," Mosaic stated. "We could find a way over it, or-" Mosaic said before being interrupted by Hoops.

"Or, I could burn these hills down," Hoops sarcastically remarked.

"Hoops! There's no need for that," Mosaic said firmly. "And our other option I was getting to is…"

Only for Hoops to interrupt again and ask, "Is it climbing to the other side?

"That's...actually correct," Mosaic replied.

"But where would we find a way to do one of the things you suggested?" Peach asked.

"By doing something like finding a question block containing a flying power up of some kind such as a cape feather, propeller mushroom or such," Mosaic replied. "And then whoever used the power-up would use it to go to the other side to find them a springboard to throw back over," Mosaic then continued.

"But how do we know which block of the many out there we'd know where to find one?" Toad asked.

Mario then came in and started added to the conversation as well, saying that if they just bash several blocks, they could find one eventually.

Amidst the discussion, Luigi tries to sneak away from things once again. Once the cowardly plumber made enough distance, he ran yelling "See ya guys! You got-a this!" However, due to not looking where he was going, he ran into a ? block, and out it came conveniently enough...a Cape Feather, which floated down and touched Luigi.

With a poof, Luigi spouted a long yellow cape tied around his neck with it hanging behind him. Luigi groaned due to the impact of the block, not realizing what he just picked up.

Mario walked over to Luigi and looked down at him, and then asked, "Brother, do you-a realize what you just-a picked up?" Then exclaiming, "You picked up a Cape a Feather!"

"I did?" Luigi said as he got up, questioning Mario's statement. He then looks behind him and sees the cape "Oh..i guess I a did." Luigi then said.

"Now, can a you fly over and find us a springboard and throw it to us once you a find it?" Mario then asked Luigi, "But do I a have to?" Luigi asked.

Mario, along with the others, just nodded their heads.

A bit of time later, everyone's gotten out of the way so Luigi could get a running start to get over the hill. Luigi, of course, was hesitant to fly off.

"Hey, Luigi! Come on! The sooner you start, the sooner you'll finish!" Rosy shouted to Luigi, trying to give him encouragement.

Luigi, going up the incline of the hill, turned around and went back down so he could get a running start, then said, "Oh well, here-a goes,"

Luigi ran and up the incline and took off, however, ran smack into the hill.

"Agh, that's gotta hurt..." Link said.

"Luigi? Are you okay?" Peach asked.

"Yes…" Luigi said, somewhat in pain, and got back up. Luigi then ran back down the incline again, saying he'd-a make it this time. Luigi took another run up the incline, and as he was about to take off yelled, "here we-a gooooooo!" this time making it over the hills.

"Yeah! Go Luigi!" Mosaic yelled.

A bit later on, Luigi had a bit of trouble controlling his cape, but managed to do so correctly eventually. After such, he began to drift through the air with his cape around Fluffy Heights to look for a springboard.

A bit of time later, Luigi stopped gliding and landed atop a wooden platform, unable to find anything, Luigi then sat on a wooden block and said, "Ah man, why can't I-a find a springboard anywhere?" and then kicked a nearby note block with frustration, releasing the contents of it. This thing, funny enough, being a springboard. Luigi saw the springboard and just is speechless about what just happened. However, despite that, he decided to just pick it up and fly back to where he came so that he could bring to the others.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group continued to await Luigi's return.

"Any minute now," Mosaic stated, looking at his watch. Just as he said that Luigi had returned.

"Hey-a, Guys! I have a-a springboard! I'm going to-a throw it down to-a you!" Luigi stated.

After noticing Luigi, everyone gave a cheer with a "Hurray!". Luigi then threw the springboard down to them, and they all jump on it to the other side one by one, each landing on a single wooden platform on the other side.

"We lost a little time due to needing a way across," Mosaic stated. "However, if we hurry, we may be able to catch Bowser's fleet before they get out of range," Mosaic continued.

"Right," the others responded in unison.

Team S.M.B.X and the Mosaic Group started traversing through Fluffy Heights, jumping platform to platform, collecting coins, bashing blocks, bouncing on note blocks, etc. After a bit of time, the group ran by a house. The house was shaped oddly like a mushroom, the top was blue and spotted, the bottom was tan and had a wooden door entering into it, and the door had windows on either side.

Hoops, seeing the house, backed up, signaling for the others to stop so he could tell them something.

Once everyone stopped, Hoops started, "I think we should stop at this mushroom house and stock up on supplies," Hoops stated.

"You-a sure Hoops? If we're quick enough, we could catch the-a air fleet, and I feel stopping-a here will just slow us-a down even-a further," Mario argued.

"Let me ask a question then Mario," Hoops replied. "Are you really suggesting we should rush in with what is at best a mediocre arsenal?" Hoops continued. "All we have power up wise is my firepower and Luigi's cape, while the rest of you guys are powerup less," Hoops continued. "While we don't necessarily NEED power-ups, they help us out quite a bit and give us an edge in battle..." Hoops finished.

"Hmm, you've got a-a point Hoops. I agree we should-a stop at this-a house," Mario stated, with everyone then heading inside of the mushroom house.

 **VIII: It's All Chance**

The group got inside the house, and noticed that the lights are off.

"The lights are out, we should find the light switch," Link suggested.

Rosy after looking around a bit finds a light switch on a wall but sees that a key is needed for it. Toad meanwhile notices a detail in the room, a large red curtain on the wall and wonders what it's for. And on the far left interior of the house, a desk with a noticeable entrance behind it entering into another room. He was unable to make out the room however due to the lights being out. Toad then proceeded to walk over to the desk.

"Hey! You! The toad living in here! Could you help us out?!" he proceeded to yell.

Toad then noticed a silver object sitting on the desk, a desk bell to be exact. After seeing this, he proceeds to then ring it over and over again. Peach takes notice of Toad's actions and rushes over to the desk and stops him from hitting it.

"Toad, stop hitting the bell, once is enough," Peach sternly told Toad. "It's also rude since the toad might be asleep so we shouldn't wake him up just in case," Peach continued to tell Toad.

"Eh, don't bother," a voice said, yawning while doing so.

Peach and Toad, acknowledging the voice, look in the direction of it, seeing that it's the toad living in the house, also noticing their wearing green clothes.

"Oh, I apologize for waking you up, I tried to get Toad to quiet down, but he was being too loud," Peach explained to the Toad.

Realizing who he's talking to, the toad, shocked, asked, "Princess Peach? Your highness, what brings you here?"

The toad then looked behind her seeing the others. "Ah, I see you brought several others with you," The toad then said.

"Yeah, and about your question…" Peach said before suddenly Mosaic came to the desk to explain.

"So basically, we were traversing through the Fluffy heights, and we needed to make a stop here because we realized our arsenal wouldn't cut it against...umm, the threat we're trying to get rid of them, so I was wondering if you'd umm...allow us to..."

Rosy, noticing Mosaic, went over to the Toad and simplified Mosaic's words. "We need supplies as we're pursuing Bowser's air fleet," Rosy explained.

"Yeah...pretty much that," Mosaic stated.

As she told him their situation, the toad had been walking over to the light switch holding a shiny, red key, which seemed to be for the lights, which it was, as he just inserted it into the slot and twisted it, turning on the lights.

"Him again huh?" The toad said. "So, you wanted me to lend you some power-ups for that?" The Toad then stated.

"Yeah, we just said that," Hoops replied.

"I'll lend you some..." The toad said. "As soon as you play my mini-game," the toad then added shortly after.

"What!?" the group all said in unison in response to this.

Hoops then decided to give the Toad a piece of his mind. "Why the heck do we have to play a minigame when the entire kingdom as we know it could be in danger?!" Hoops said, chewing out the toad.

"I have to make money somehow, now, each of you needs to pay admission to participate," the toad then explained.

"This guy gets more and more ridiculous by the minute…" Hoops whispered to Mosaic.

"Alright-a then, how much is admission?" Mario asked the toad.

"Only five coins apiece," the Toad answered.

"I-a understand," Mario responded.

"Oh, umm...minus Peach, as she rules over the kingdom, her paying admission isn't appropriate," The toad then added.

"Alrighty then, we should-a add up what the total cost is," Mario said. "Let's-a see, there's nine of us, minus-a Peach, making eight, and each of us need to-a pay five coins to participate. There-afore, the total is.." Mario calculated.

"Forty coins," Mosaic said.

"Alright-a then, it's time to pay the-a mushroom," Mario responded. Mario then empties four blue coins and twenty gold coins into the toad's hand. "We're a ready," he then said.

"Alright then, turn your attention to the large red curtain," The toad informed, then pressing a button located on the way, which moves the curtains aside. "Behind the curtain i grid of cards, each of them with a question mark imprinted on them. "The rules are simple," the toad began to explain. "The other sides of each card on the board have one of three things imprinted, one being a power-up, and the other two...Bowser and Bowser Jr. icon pictures," The toad continued to explain.

"Interesting..." Mario commented.

"Each of the nine of you will take turns flipping over cards, if you match two of the same power-up, you guys will receive a physical version of the real thing," the Toad keep explaining. "However...if you guys match a Bowser or Bowser Jr. your game will end. The game continues until you either do that or find every power up on the board." The toad continued informing.

"So you're essentially saying we could walk out of here empty handed?" Link asked.

"Well yeah, if you don't match anything," the Toad stating, answering Link's question.

Not commenting on his answering, Link then asked, "What determines the order we go in?"

"Oh yeah, that, it's randomized," The toad answered.

"Interesting," Link responded.

"Now, could each of you write your name on a paper?" The toad asked. "I need you to so that so I can randomize it. I should have done this before the game started, but I can do it now," the Toad then explained.

The group each one by one signed their names.

Afterward, the toad said, "There we go," then going over to a computer and typing something into it. A digital screen within the house flashed on and displayed a digital list. The list on the screen read out as followed:

 _1) Toad_

 _2) Rosy_

 _3) Hoops_

 _4) Peach_

 _5) Link_

 _6) Berry_

 _7) Mario_

 _8) Luigi_

 _9) Mosaic_

"This means that Toad is going first," The Toad stated.

Toad walked up to the stand in the front of the card grid around a meter away in the center of it, where he found a dart gun, which he presumed wass for aiming at the cards. Toad aimed for the fourth card in the first row, behind this was a bomb suit icon.

"Sweet!" Toad said, getting off the stand to let Rosy take a turn next.

Rosy shot the third card in the third row, uncovering a blue shell icon. Next up was Hoops, who shot the sixth card on the third row, revealing another bomb suit icon, earning the group their first power up.

"Bingo!" Hoops said upon doing so.

Peach shot next, hitting the card in the bottom left, revealing an ice flower icon. Link goes next, and shot the fourth card in the fourth row, getting a rather unfortunate result...a bowser icon.

Everyone, including Link, gave an "Ahhh!" due to this.

"Oof, that's your first bowser icon, you should be careful from here on out due to that," the toad said.

Next up was Berry, who shot the fifth card in the bottom right. Behind it was a boomerang suit icon. Mario went next, he aimed for the fifth card in the second row and found a blue shell icon earning the group their second power up.

"I'm the winner!" Mario said after doing so.

Luigi went next, extremely nervous while trying to make their decision, afraid of hitting a bowser icon. He however eventually decided on the first card in the third row, closing his eyes as he shot. Behind this card...was a fire flower icon. Luigi opened his eyes back up and looked at what he hit, and was relieved to see he didn't hit a bowser nor bowser jr. icon. Finally, Mosaic took a turn to shoot, he aimed for the fifth card on the fourth row, behind it, finding a feather icon.

At this point, the cycle reset, Toad took his turn again, shooting the second card in the first row, revealing a fire flower icon, giving the group their third power up. Next up, was Rosy's second turn. She choose carefully, wanting to be sure to make a wise decision and not hit a bowser icon. Eventually, she decided on the shooting the third card in the second row, with an unfortunate result...another bowser icon.

"NOOOO!" the group all yelled, then groaning in disappointment.

"Ah man, sorry, but that ends your game right there," The Toad informed them. The board of cards revealed all the uncovered cards, showing multiple different things, such as mushrooms, fire flowers, feathers, bowser jr icons, etc. "You guys made three matches, those being a bomb suit, blue shell, and a fire flower, so I'll get you guys those three power-ups in the backroom," The toad said, then heading to the back room to go get them.

Hoops walked over to Rosy, then said, "Nice job messing things up," in a sarcastic tone.

"Hey! I didn't have a way of knowing that would be a bowser icon, so that's not worth getting mad over something I couldn't control," Rosy responded defensively.

Hoops didn't give much of a response to their justification and just walked away.

The toad returned into the main room "I have your guys' items, here you go," Toad noticed however that he had four items instead of three, this four item being a star-shaped object glowing many different colors. A rainbow star.

"Umm...we didn't earn that rainbow star," Toad stated.

"I'm aware of that, however, I understand you guys are on an important mission, that's why I threw in the extra help," The toad responded.

"Thank you for-a that," Mario said.

"No problem," the toad replied.

"Now, does someone have a bag we can use for our items?" Mario questioned.

"Hoops should have a bag that could work," Mosaic stated, "You do, correct Hoops?" Mosaic then asked.

"Indeed I do," Hoops responded, proceeding to then pull out an item sack and holding it out to the toad so he could put them in, which he did. "There we go," Hoops said.

 **IX: After It!**

Link then heard something in the distance, "I...hear something outside," Link then informed the group.

"Now that you mention it, I hear it too," Rosy added.

"Me too, it almost sounds-a like...propellers!" Luigi stated, shouting the last part.

"We should head outside to see what it is," Mosaic told everyone, whom then proceeded to start going out the door.

As they left, Peach told the toad "One last time, thanks for your help,"

"You're welcome," The toad responded, then telling the princess, "Stay safe!"

Peach then started heading outside, seeing that everyone was looking at something. "Umm, what are you guys-" Peach started to say, however instead looked up and sees it herself.

It was a large, brown airship, with weapons to boot and everything, and it seemed to be flying in the direction of the rest of Bowser's fleet.

"It looks like one of Bowser's airships!" Toad stated.

"But what is it doing so far from the other ships?" Link proceeded to question.

Mosaic responded, "It seems it fell behind."

"Guys, I have an idea...again," Hoops said. "Why don't we hitch a ride on the airship by grabbing onto the dangling chain as it's heading to Bowser's fleet, therefore by grabbing on we'll be able to catch Bowser's air fleet?" Hoops then said giving out his idea.

"That's a great idea!" Mario exclaimed. "but how will we get-a up-a there?" Mario then questioned.

Mosaic looked around, and he saw something, this something was a note block. However, this one was different, it was yellow in shade as opposed to it's normal white.

"We should use the yellow note block!" Mosaic then told the group.

Everyone else, seeing what Mosaic was looking at, agreed with him and started to run towards the block, except Luigi that is, whom hesitanted to.

Then beginning to make an excuse said "I-a can't because I just remembered that-"

Only to be interrupted by Mosaic who said, "It's no time for your excuses, we need to jump on the note block quickly to catch the airship in time before it flies out of range, now, are you in?"

Luigi, hesitantly said that he was and heads with the rest of the group.

Mosaic then said, "Alright then in that case…" Afterward everyone quickly one at a time in the order of Toad, Hoops, Berry, Mario, Link, Peach, Rosy, Mosaic and Luigi bounce on the note block and are shot up very high. Mosaic, finishing his earlier sentence then yelled, "...Here. we. GO!"

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	2. Chapter 2

**I: Aboard The Enemy Ship**

As had been planned, Toad managed to grab onto the ship's anchor, followed by Hoops, Berry, Mario, Link, Peach, Rosy, and Mosaic. Luigi reached out to grab the anchor as well, however, he missed it and began to fall back down. Before he got out of reach, Mosaic managed to catch him, mainly thanks to his cape giving him a slower fall.

"Woah...thanks Mo-a-saic," Luigi thanked him.

"You're welcome," Mosaic responded.

Suddenly, a loud clank was created by something, in which Toad questioned what the cause of it was.

"Mama mia!" Mario said, seeming to know what the cause of the clank was. "We have-a too much-a weight on the chain! You guys up-a there, get on the-a ship! Now!" Mario proceeded to inform with a panicked tone.

Having heard this, Toad, Hoops and Berry frantically climb up the chain and aboard the airship. Mario then started climbing himself, and shouted for Link, Peach, Rosy, Mosaic and Luigi to all do the same, which they all did.

Once they were all aboard the airship, they took a moment to catch their breath.

"That was a close-a one, if we held on much-a longer, we'd all be in deep spaghetti," Luigi said with relief.

Hoops began to say, "Now that we're here, we should stay on this ship and hope it-" before being shushed by Link.

"But why-" Hoops said.

"Because we need to be real quiet as we don't want anyone to know we're here," Link said, interrupting Hoops again.

"Okie dokie," said Luigi as they walked away, only to then trip and fall. Over his own cape no less, then giving an "oof," after doing so.

"Guys... I said don't move!" Link once again said firmly but quietly.

As the group snuck around the ship, hiding behind crates as they did so, Toad accidentally pressed his foot onto something on the ship. This thing appeared to be a wooden pressure plate that was hidden on the ground and opened a hatch right above them where a bunch of cannonballs started to unload from it and fall down above them. Seeing the cannons, the group quickly jumped out of the way to dodge them. This, however, came at the expense of the metal spheres causing a large racket, to the groups' discomposure, them covering their ears due to such. Just as it seemed as if things couldn't get any louder than they now were, one last cannonball rolled out of one of the hatches and smashed Berry right over the head. Berry began to whine quietly after being hit by it.

"N...No, No, No, No, No..Berry...please...please don't-" Rosy began to say, trying to get him to calm down, but to no avail.

Berry then began crying out very loudly, alerting their enemies of their presence.

Due to such, the ships weapons activate and begin to fire at the group.

"Oh this is just great, now everyone knows that we're here," Hoops said sarcastically.

Hoops, being too busy complaining about what Berry caused, hadn't realized a cannonball was on it's way over to him. By the time he noticed it, it was too late to react. The cannonball knocked Hoops into the wall, causing his 3-D glasses to fall off, but worse, for his body to flicker between red and dark green, indicating he had lost his fire power.

"Welp, there goes that." Hoops then stated, then crawling over to his 3-D glasses and picks them up in his hand. "Welp, I obviously don't need these at this point, so may as well put them away," Hoops said, putting the glasses away.

Hoops didn't exactly have much time to be complaining however, his and the others' surroundings were as if they were right in the middle of a warzone. Cannonballs and bullet bills alike assaulted the group from all sides, and from small compartments in the ship were mole-like creatures wearing goggles, rocky wrenches, whom hench their name, threw wrenches at the group.

After dodging the attacks for a bit of time, eventually Mosaic spoke up, saying "Alright, I've had enough of being target practice, let's see if we can destroy these cannons and deal with these rocky wrenches."

Peach, on the other hand, had other plans, not too far from them at all, she saw an elevated door, that based on its design and position seemed to lead to the ship's interior.

"Guys! Follow my lead! We can duck for cover over there!" Peach informed the others, pointing at the door.

"That's a good idea Peach," Rosy responded to Peach.

"Come on-a Peach! We can-a take them!" Mario argued.

"Mario, I don't think so," Peach responded, then running towards the direction of the door, signaling the others to follow her lead.

"Yeah, I honestly agree with-a Peach brother," Luigi stopped a moment to tell Mario, before continuing to follow Peach's lead.

Mario decided that it's probably best to just go with the others and followed them as well to the door, climbing up a short ladder while doing so.

Once everyone had gotten inside, away from all the chaos, they stopped to catch their breath. Then afterward observing the scenery of the ship, seeing that there's wooden boarding on all sides, and seeing several metallic parts in some places, contracting in and out, and several small chutes with steam releasing from them. They figured that this must have been the engine room of the airship. As the group looked around, Hoops noticed several question blocks on the ground lined up in a horizontal row. Not saying a word, Hoops crawled over to them and bashes each with his fist, hoping he'd find something of use inside.

He bashed the first one, finding only coins. Then the next, and also found nothing but coins. He then bashed the third one hoping it'd contain a power-up, however, it unfortunately, didn't. It, however, DID contain something else. A green object with two contracting flat pads connected by a flexible X in between the two. This was a springboard. "Huh, it's no power up, but it'll do," Hoops said, then putting it in his bag despite it not being one.

"Hey Hoops, you may want to look at this," Mosaic quietly said to Hoops, who was with the rest of the group looking at something in another room.

This puzzled Hoops, however, he just said alright and scurried over to see what it was.

The room the others were looking at had a steering lever in the center with two handles, to the left of it was a 10 by 4 wooden grid of buttons on a panel that reached far enough to touch the wall on the left side of the room. And on the right of the desk was a digital screen, displaying what looked to be a map. And above the steering equipment were large square windows that reached across the entire room. Finally, on the ground left of the control deck, was a large wooden crate.

However, the scenery within the room was not the eye-catching thing to the group, it was who was piloting the airship. The creature bore an appearance resembling a turtle. Their legs were short and stubby, they had a red, spiked shell, a mouth cream in color, their belly was covered in scutes, and most notable of all, two large, bulky fists that like their feet were yellow in color.

Not only that, but next to them was another reptilian creature whom looked similar, but had several differences in their appearance, their legs and arms were instead pink, their shell lacked spikes and instead had a ladybug print, a ponytail which was held together by a green accessory, and held a white boomerang with a bow wrapped around it's tip. The two creatures were a Boom Boom and a Pom Pom.

"Yeah, them," Mosaic informed Hoops. The group then stopped peaking and went back into the engine room to discuss.

"They seem to be the ones controlling the-a airship," said Mario.

"What are we going to do?" Rosy asked.

Berry, wanting to find a peaceful solution that didn't involve violence said in his language a plan involving luring them away from the control board, that they could...only for Hoops to interrupt and explain why things wouldn't work.

"Berry, it's not that simple, these are Bowser's minions, it's hard to really take a nonviolent approach here," Hoops explained to Berry.

Unwilling, Berry admitted them to be right, having a sad look on his face, but not going on for much longer about it.

"What I think we should do is give those two a whooping and ask questions later." Toad suggested.

"That could work," Mosaic stated. "And considering how much we outnumber them, we have the odds greatly in our favor," he continued.

"In that case, we should suit up a bit before doing so," Link stated.

After thinking things over a while, the group realized that the only one with a power-up at the moment would be Luigi with his cape, which he had managed to hold onto despite the assault from the airship's weapons. Hoops looks over their power-ups, seeing the fire flower, blue shell, hammer suit, rainbow star, and the recently acquired springboard.

"I think what we should do is conserve our power-ups and use only two of them for now," Hoops informed the rest of the group.

"Hmm...But who's gonna use-a what?" Mario asked.

"I was just trying to think of that…" Hoops replied unamused, then starting to think a bit. Afterward, he gave his decision. "I believe the what we should do is that I use the blue shell and that Toad uses the Fire Flower," decided Hoops.

"Why is that?" Rosy questioned. "And why should you get another power up when you just had one?" Rosy asked.

"To be honest, I was sort of thinking the same thing," Link added.

Defensively as held the blue shell in his hand and threw it the fire flower to Toad, Hoops explained himself, still being quiet. "I'm not taking the blue shell because I 'want' it, I'm trying to be rational," Hoops started to explain.

"How so?" Rosy asked.

"I was thinking over everyone's, including my own natural abilities and realized that quite a number of us already have an effective form of combat we can use," Hoops continued. "Mario, Luigi and Mosaic all have elemental kinetic abilities, Peach and Link both have weapons on hand already, Peach her frying pan, Link his sword and multiple other things. As well as this, me and Toad are the two quickest in the group, so it'd help for it to be the two of us to receive the power-ups," Hoops continued explaining.

"But what about me and Berry?" Rosy asked.

Hoops had realized he didn't actually take Rosy into account, so he quickly thought something up. "It's because you have rolling abilities you can use already," Hoops told Rosy.

"What about Berry though?" Rosy asked.

"Regarding Berry, I didn't want to put that responsibility on him and he's unwilling to fight as it is," Hoops answered.

"Fair enough..." Rosy responded.

"Anyway, we've talked enough, and in fact should stop as someone could eventually end up hearing our chatter," Hoops said.

Afterward, Hoops absorbed the blue shell power and changed appearance. Most of his body was now encased in a Koopa-shell-like casing, which had sockets for each of his legs, as well as his face.

"Honestly, I think that Hoops made a reasonable explanation and that Toad should use the fire flower," Mosaic said.

"I second Mosaic," Link added in agreement.

"Ah alright," Toad said, then absorbing the fire flower, which caused his hat and clothes to become blue as opposed to red after doing so. Toad then creates a blue fireball in his hand, and says "Just call me, 'The Flaming Fungus'"

Playing along, Mario said "Alrighta then 'Flaming Fungus', let's a go kick those turtles into their shells!"

Afterward, everyone, with Toad leading the rush into the control room and said person jumped into the air and ambushed the Boom Boom with a fireball. After being shot with the fireball, the Boom turned around, angry, and saw Toad along with the rest of the group. Due to this, the Boom Boom signaled for Pom Pom to help them out, despite them making it clear they acknowledged the group's presence. With Boom Boom then swinging their arms in circles ready to fight. "Charge!" Toad then yelled out of nowhere, the group then running towards the two like a mob. Pom Pom threw their boomerang desperately, hoping it'd do something, not that it did much as Link quickly slashed it away.

The group beat the two down rather quickly, delivering blow after blow to them, not giving them much chance to fight back, eventually knocking them both out the windows of the control room and off the airship, shattering the glass from doing so.

 **II: Take Control**

"Wow, that was surprisingly easy," Hoops stated.

"To be fair, we did heavily outnumber them, plus, Boom Boom and Pom Pom aren't Bowser's strongest underlings," Link said in response to Hoops.

"Now that we've defeated them, and rather quickly no less, what do we do with the ship?" Toad questioned.

Mosaic, having his attention on the control panel, noticed the digital map on the right, and noticed there was a beeping noise coming from it. This beeping being from a tracker which was keeping track of some large, red, blinking object on the map. Based on the objects' shape, he presumed that this must have been the Flagship.

"Maybe we just-a should destroy this-a airship," Mario suggested.

"let's not rush to ideas so quick Mario," Mosaic responded. "Take a look at this," He then said giving the others a hand signal.

After everyone took a look Luigi asked, "Am I-a looking at what I think I-a am?"

"It's a map right?" Peach then asked.

"Exactly," Mosaic responded. "Now please turn your attention to the large flashing red icon in the distance on it," Mosaic continued.

"Hey isn't that…" Hoops started.

Mosaic figuring what his question is responded, "I believe so, I think that's Bowser's flagship."

"So...what exactly are you saying we should do?" Rosy asked.

"I believe what we should do is pilot this airship and follow Bowser's flagship with it," Mosaic answered.

"Mosaic...as great of an idea that-a is, it can't be-a done," Luigi started. Luigi continued, "There's a bunch of-a things we'd to do to get it-a working like figuring out what fuels it and-"

However, he then got cut off when Mosaic simply just grabbed on the steering lever and tilted it, controlling the ship successfully. "Or I can just do something like that," Mosaic then responded.

Mosaic as he controlled the ship looked to his left and just noticed there is a furnace which acted as the ship's fuel.

"Also Hoops, could you along with Toad and Link keep that thing running?" Mosaic then asked them to do, pointing at it.

"Alright, then I suppose," Hoops said, with Toad and Link giving Mosaic an okay as well and picking up two of the shovels near it and shoveling coal into the furnace.

"Alright, so based on this map, the other ships are around seven miles north of us," Mosaic stated.

Suddenly, a rattling sound was heard from outside the ship.

"What was-a that?" Mario questioned.

Peach seemed to have an idea of what it probably was and asked Mosaic a question. "Mosaic, do you see a 'Disable Weapons' button on the control panel?" she asked.

After being asked, Mosaic examined the control panel and quickly found the button as unlike the other buttons' blue color, this one was orange and had "Disable Weapons" printed on it, then pushing the button.

Everyone gave another listen to see if they heard anything. They didn't, which made them realize the weapons were disabled now, to their relief.

"Alright, now where were we? Pursuing the air fleet and boarding the flagship correct?" Mosaic asked the group.

"Mhmm," Hoops responded.

"Then, in that case, let's go get them!" Mosaic said and started piloting the ship north to chase the fleet.

 **III: Invading The Invaders**

Meanwhile, at Bowser's flagship, said owner of the flagship sat in the director's seat in the control room, which notably had a rather large interior, much larger than that of the normal airships, with Bowser Jr and Kamek nearby, and the Koopalings further away from the control panels.

"Bowser Jr., I'd like you to check how close we are to Grassland's castle so that we can prepare to kidnap the king there," Bowser ordered his son.

"Aye-aye king dad!" Bowser Jr. responded. Bowser Jr then checked the digital map covering an entire side of the wall in the room. "We're a mere five miles away from the castle Dad," Bowser Jr. told their dad.

"Perfect, shouldn't be long now before we arrive there so we can attack the castle and imprison the king," Bowser said.

"Your wickedness, shouldn't we do a roll call on all of the ships to make sure their all present and none have fallen behind?" Kamek asked Bowser.

"Ah, I almost forgot, good idea Kamek," Bowser said, then grabbing the microphone on the center of the control panel and making a broadcast. "Attention all pilots! Avert your ears to the speaker for roll call!" Bowser announced. "Ship A-9!" Bowser called. "Present," the pilot responded. "Ship E-7!" Bowser continued. "Present," E-7's pilot responded.

Bowser continued to call off more of the ships and eventually made it to the ship that, unbeknownst to them, had by hijacked by Team S.M.B.X and The Mosaic Group.

"Ship C-15!" Bowser called.

Back at the hijacked ship, Mario recognized bowser's voice, and quietly told the others "It sounds-a like Bowser's doing a roll-a call, don't talk into the speaker-a mic."

"Why n-" Hoops tried to ask.

Mario interrupted him and explained, "Because we don't-a need him to know we're-a here."

"Good point, I'll be silent," Hoops replied.

By now, Bowser had called the ship multiple times with no answer. Due to this, Bowser realizes that due to the lack thereof, this meant the ship was missing.

"Either those incompetent fools aren't at the deck or are sleeping on the job," Bowser presumed.

"But uh, king dad, didn't you have us wire the ships to go through the entirety of them?" Ludwig asked Bowser.

"Yeah, they did, glad I remembered," Bowser replied. "Another possibility is that...hmm...someone hijacked the ship," Bowser said. "Someone like…" Bowser continued.

"Someone like...the Marios? And their other meddling friends perhaps?" Roy asked.

"Yes, it could be, and know what? I bet it is them that took the ship!" Bowser stated, acknowledging Roy.

Meanwhile, Mosaic figured that Bowser wasn't using the mic anymore. "He doesn't seem to be talking anymore, one of you guys could just mute it," Mosaic told the others. Toad began walking over to it to mute it when Mosaic said, "Actually...maybe not, Bowser or someone could slip up and reveal some useful information.".\

"Good point, maybe I shouldn't," Toad replied.

"Hey Mosaic, look at the map," Hoops told him. Mosaic looked at the map upon the desk, seeing that they're surrounded by airships. "This means that we're right in the middle of the fleet at this point," Hoops said, then continuing and began to say, "And now we should-".

However, in the middle of his talking, the voice on the speaker came back, this voice being Bowser's.

"First off, roll call...is off…" Bowser announced.

"Whew, that's-a a relief," Luigi said.

"Second off, I'd like to talk to the people piloting Ship 'C-15'" Bowser said.

"I spoke too-a soon.." Luigi said in response.

Mosaic, now forming a paranoid look on his face, looked at the ship number, reading it as "C-15".

"Uh oh…" Mosaic said under his breath.

Bowser then continued. "I've noticed that whoever's piloting this ship didn't answer during roll call, and know what else? I believe there's a clear reason why," Bowser stated. "Maybe the pilots aren't supposed to be in there, to begin with," Bowser continued to go on about. "MARIO! LUIGI! And whoever is with you! WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! So why don't you just show yourselves?" Bowser proceeded to roar into the mic.

Mosaic took another look at the map, realizing that they were heading straight for Bowser's flagship as it was right in front of them, with a large black flag imprinted with a red skull to boot.

"Guys...do you realize what we're right in front of?" Mosaic asked the others. The others went over to the window to see what Mosaic was talking about.

"Hey…" Rosy said.

Berry added in his language "isn't..."

"That…" Hoops added next.

"Right…" Link added.

"Over…" Luigi said next.

"There…" Peach said.

Then Toad followed "In…"

Mario continued "The-a distance…".

And finally, all the eight of simultaneously said "Bowser's flagship!?"

"I believe so, and I have an idea," Mosaic stated. "Hoops, take over on piloting for a bit so I can say something into the speaker," Mosaic then asked Hoops, which Hoops accepted.

"Wait, you're going to alert them of our presence?" Link asked Mosaic.

"I am, but just wait and see what I have in store for them," Mosaic responded.

Mosaic then cleared his throat and started to talk through the speaker and said the following, "Hey...Bowser, I want you to know, we are here, and yep, we did hijack your airship, and I'm sure you and your minions want to rip us to shreds for that. Well, I have a question for you...how would you like to meet us personally? As I speak, we're boarding your flagship now, so… what do you say, Bowser? Will you accept our offer?"

Bowser then thought about the situation a bit, and realized what it is, after thinking it over, he gave Mosaic his answer.

"With pleasure," Bowser decided.

"Well alright then, just come out when you're ready to begin," Mosaic responded.

 **IV: Showdown**

Mosaic then stopped talking and realized that they've landed on the flagship itself, and decided to take a look outside at the ship's scenery. As he did so, he realized the ship was loaded with weapons.

Everywhere he looked he saw cannons, bill blasters, and flame canisters left and right. As well as this, he noticed that most of the material was made out of bore a darkish shade of gray as opposed to the normal brown shade that the airships had. A bit further ahead, he noticed a short staircase which lead up to more of the same. And at the end of it, saw a large door that opened from the bottom, and looked as if it was electric powered and metallic. Other details he noticed on the door were that the bottom was lined with gold rounded protrusions. On either side of a few feet away were gray crates, and along with this, on either side of the door were smaller doors, each of which was notably marked "Containment Room".

"What could be in there?" Mosaic thought to himself.

Realizing however what would be smart to do considering the ship's layout, he figured they should make necessary preparations.

"Hey guys, I think we should suit up a bit more," Mosaic suggested.

Hoops looked in the bag again and realized a detail and mentioned it to Mosaic. "Mosaic, we only have one power up left," Hoops informed Mosaic, that being the bomb suit.

The bomb suit had a pretty similar design to a hammer suit, the only difference, however, was that while the hammer suit had a black shade, the bomb suit, on the other hand, was dark green.

"Oh wow, you're right," Mosaic replied.

"Who's going to use it th-" Hoops started to say.

"I will," someone said.

This someone to be exact was Princess Peach, who takes the bomb suit from Hoops and touches it. And with a poof, seemingly from magic or some mysterious phenomenon, it fit on Peach perfectly.

"Oh...I was-a going to take-a it," Mario said, a bit disappointed.

"Mario, this isn't really about who gets what, the overall goal is just to foil Bowser's plan again, correct?" Peach asked Mario.

"Yeah, you're a right," Mario replied. "And considering we've-a used about all of our-a power ups, aside from the rainbow star, which we should-a save, we should-a be 'Ready to rumble'," Mario said, everyone then proceeding to get out of the airship through the recently broken window.

Once everyone ran to where they were around a couple of meters away from the door to the control room, they simply waited. After a bit of time passed, the metallic door began to rise, revealing Bowser standing behind it, whom of which marched outside and glared at them.

"All of you prepare to be destroyed!" Bowser shouted, pointing at them while doing so.

Both Team S.M.B.X and The Mosaic Group, whom both had already prepared for battle were surprised by this.

"You and what army?" Toad asked.

"This one," Bowser said, then proceeding to yell, "Bowser Jr.! Kamek! Larry, Morton, Wendy, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy and Ludwig! Get over here and help me clobber these meddlers!"

The nine of them each showed up subsequently, each of them with a different weapon. Larry, Iggy, Ludwig, and Kamek appeared to be holding magic wands. Morton and Roy both were holding cannons of some kind, Morton's looking like a one-hand one that fired cannonballs, while Roy's, on the other hand, was a bit bigger, and based on the skull imprinted on the cannon's base, seemed to launch bullet bills. Wendy was wearing a pair of golden, presumably magic rings, and finally, Lemmy was not only rolling on a ball, but wielded a round, purple object with yellow star markings on them, and a fuse uptop...a bomb. Each of them also looked as ready Bowser was.

Luigi then noticed a bit of an alarming detail and whispered it to Mario.

"Oh no...we're-a outnumbered 2 to 1, maybe we should-a quit while we're-a behind," Luigi whispered.

"Oh uh uh uh, no we're-a not, we are going to split-a the job." Mario began to explain to Luigi. "Each of use will a take on one of them." Mario finished explaining to Luigi.

"But umm, there's-a nine of us and ten of them as I-a said, won'-ta one of us need to take two of them on at-a once?" Luigi responded.

"Yes, that's-a true, I'll do it," Mario responded. "Are you-a sure brother? Who are you going to deal-a with?" Luigi asked.

"I'll deal with-a Bowser and Bowser Jr., you're-a taking on-a Kamek," Mario explained.

Which Luigi responded, "Me?"

"Yes," Mario replied, and then proceeded to quietly whisper to each of the others who to deal with as well, telling them, "Berry is-a dealing with Lemmy, Peach will fight-a Wendy, Toad will-a contend with Iggy, Link will-a fight Roy, Mosaic will go against-a Ludwig, Rosy, Larry and finally Hoops, you-a handle Morton,"

"Are you losers done flapping your lips and ready to rumble!?" Roy yelled at the group.

"That's-a my line!" Mario said, then saying, "But regardless, everyone, let's-a go! CHARGE!" After Mario's statement, both sides began to charge at one another, yelling as they did so.

Mario started off the brawl with leaping above Bowser and holding his hammer overhead, which Bowser dodged, and yelled, "Bowser Jr.! Help me out!"

Then proceeding to blast a fireball toward Mario, which he with quick precision deflected with a swing of his hammer. Bowser Jr. prepared a green shell and then threw it at Mario as he was looking the other way. However, Mario saw the shell coming and swiftly kicked it back at Bowser Jr. with ease, which sent him flying and bashing the back of his shell into a cannon, then getting back up.

"Mario! Just you wait!" Bowser Jr. yelled, running his way again.

Meanwhile, Link and Hoops were working together to deal with Morton and Roy's assault from their utilities while dodging and blocking their attacks, which they for a good while did so skillfully. Link found an opening in the assault and fired three sword beams Roy's direction. However, Roy managed to block two of the three shots with their cannon but didn't see the third and got hit.

Hoops on the other hand stayed true to his job and charged Morton's way, spinning into his shell while doing so in an attempt to ram into Morton, which he did successfully, which Morton let a wail out in pain and then proceeded to try to give Hoops a taste of his own medicine by spinning into him inside his own shell. However, Hoops had gotten back out of his shell by then and noticed his attempt, quickly evading it, causing Morton to accidentally ram into Roy, causing both to be hurt by the impact.

"Hey! Watch where you're spinning!" Roy angrily yelled at Morton.

"Sorry, but that slippery beetle was too fast for me," Morton replied.

"New strategy! Let's barrage them!" Roy suggested, which Morton agreed and the both of them prepared again to aim at the two.

As this occurred, Berry fought with Lemmy, the latter of which chased the other on his ball trying to hurl star bombs at the baby dino, which he was barely managing to dodge. Berry then noticed another bomb bouncing his way, and seeing own axis from Lemmy, a bit nervously, he jumped up and kicked it toward Lemmy, making Lemmy wail from the blast, fall off his ball, and try to spin into Berry. Berry, however, too scared to move, ended up being hit by Lemmy and sent flying right into Rosy, who was in the midst of brawling with Larry and knocked over amidst doing so. Larry tried to use this as an opportunity to shoot them both with a blue energy blast, but as he's about to fire, the two noticed and gained enough composure to dodge it in time, which Rosy then quickly counterattacked by rolling into him. Upon making impact she bounced off of Larry who made a loud wail in pain. By then, Lemmy showed up next to Larry.

"Hey! Help me out with these two!" Larry asked Lemmy.

Lemmy then pulled out a bomb, ready to hurl it at the duo, and Larry prepared to blast them with the wand, which both Rosy and Berry in response making a battle stance against them.

Meanwhile, Luigi dueled Kamek high up, dodging his attacks, being too cowardly to attack on the fly. However, deflecting several blasts that came his way with his cape. Luigi eventually decided he should stop acting on the defensive and instead zipped towards Kamek in an attempt to hit him with a thunder infused punch, but missed due to his own clumsiness.

Mosaic, Peach, and Toad all, on the other hand, fought with Wendy, Iggy and Ludwig, whom the latter three were chasing the former via spinning in their shells, trying to run them over. The three heroes spot a stack of crates and simultaneously all at once jump over the crates, causing the three koopalings to crash before they could react. As the three recovered, Peach prepared a bomb and then hurled it at the three, knocking them down again and beating them down further just as they were recovering. Taking no time to rest, the three went after the Koopalings again and Toad kicked Iggy at Wendy, knocking them down yet again, doing further damage.

As this happened, Kamek looked down at the battle that occurred, and speculated that his wickedness and kids may need help, so he signaled Bowser, whom along with Bowser Jr. was still fighting Mario, and shouted, "Bowser! Tell Iggy to open the doors to the containment rooms and 'Release the Beasts'," to Bowser.

"Hmm...Good idea," Bowser said. "Iggy! Use that remote control you have to open those doors," Bowser ordered him.

"Sure king dad," Iggy responded, then while he laughed hysterically, pulled out the remote and push the button.

The doors rose, and behind this door were several creatures. These creatures were round, had large sets of razor sharp teeth, had bodies that seemed to be made of metal, their eyes were white with round with black pupils, and most interesting of all had chains that attached to their bodies. These were chain chomps, and there was six to be exact.

At the moment, however, the chain chomps' chains were attached to stands on the ground that could be elevated into the ground with the click of a button, which Iggy went on the click, setting the chain chomps free to wreak havoc. Two of the chomps went after Berry and Rosy, who were still trying to deal with Larry and Lemmy, two after Link and Hoops, still fighting Morton and Roy and two after Mosaic, Toad, and Peach, whom of which were dealing with Iggy, Wendy and Ludwig rather well.

Due to the presence of the chain chomps, everyone was forced to postpone their fighting and deal with the chain chomps first.

The chomps that pursued Berry and Rosy attempted to lunge at them, however, the two managed to dodge their attack, which Berry then proceeded to try to counter by ground pounding one, however, due to the creature's metal body, didn't do much to it. Rosy then saw she's near the edge of the ship and sees an iron bar lying on the ground, giving her a rather unorthodox idea of how to deal with them and picks up the iron bar. Rosy started to get the chain chomp's attention by waving an iron bar in the air.

"How about I throw the iron bar and you fetch it?" Rosy said to the chain chomp.

This, combined with them waving the iron bar got the chain chomp's attention, leading to them jumping around and barking excitingly. Rosy then threw the bar off the ship which the chain chomp chased right off the ship.

Berry on the other hand, still hadn't dealt with the chain chomp. Seeing that ground pounding didn't work on it, and he didn't have many other options, he decided to attempt the only other option he could think of. He jumped atop the chain chomp and tried to open his mouth and eat it, but found the chain chomp was too big to fit inside.

Rosy noticed Berry's effort, which she sighed, then said, "I'll deal with it."

She made her way over to chain chomp, grabbed it by it's chain, gave it some spins, and hurled it off the ship's side.

"That was simple. Now where were we?" Rosy then said, ready to deal with Larry and Lemmy once more.

Mosaic, Toad, and Peach dealt with the chomps differently. Toad tried to throw a fireball at one, but to no avail, which gave the chomps a chance to charge at the three, which they, however, avoided with ease. Afterward, one of the chomps tried to bite Mosaic again. Mosaic then noticed it's chain and got an idea. They dodged their bite attempt and managed to go through with his plan of grabbing them. The chain chomp was embarrassed when it realized what Mosaic just did. Mosaic however just proceeded to spin it around and hurl it off of the ship.

After he did so, Mosaic noticed that the cannons on the ship had started firing and realized they'd have to duck and cover from the bullet bills and cannonballs among everything else occurring. Among this, one of the chain chomps pursuing the three tried to go after him, however, Peach noticed and threw a bomb at them, blasting it off the ship before it could do anything.

"Wait a minute...guys, I could just destroy the cannons with these bombs," Peach said to Toad and Mosaic, and then started with hurling bombs at a 4-way cannon, demolishing it, and then prepared another for a bill blaster.

Link and Hoops tried to deal with the imminent threat of the chain chomps while also continuing to fight Roy and Morton as well. Morton fired a cannonball at the two; however, Link and Hoops managed to trick him into instead shooting one of their own chain chomps. which knocked the metallic creature unconscious.

The other chomp went after them when a crazy idea enters Hoops' head; this being to turn the chain chomp on Morton and Roy at least for a short while. The first thing Hoops did was get atop the chain chomp and get it to chase after Morton and Roy. Morton ended up being lead right into an engine tank, which let out a flame that burned him and caused him to run around crazily and fire his cannon in random directions, which left a stray cannonball lying on the ground. Afterward, Hoops got off the chomp, took it by it's chain and hurled it off the ship. Hoops then proceeded to use Morton's situation to get him good. He tucked himself into his shell, and then spun himself into Morton's direction, and connected with Morton's position, which sent Morton flying and crashing into the side deck of the ship, knocking him out.

After retracting his legs out of his shell, Hoops stated, "That's one down, nine to go!"

As he was gloating, Roy pointed his blaster at Hoops and shot a bullet bill his way, which knocked Hoops over from the impact, which Hoops quickly recovered and got ready to deal with him along with Link. As this occurred, Luigi continued to battle Kamek. Luigi made another jab at him with a volt infused punch, and this time landed a direct hit on the koopa wizard. Kamek, angered, conjured up a magic spell and blasted Luigi with it, the force of it sent Luigi plummeting towards the flagship.

Luckily for him, however, Luigi had happened to crash right into Larry and Lemmy, whom were battling Berry and Rosy. The impact knocked the two unconscious, Luigi's cape staying intact to boot.

"Thanks for making our job easier," Rosy thanked Luigi.

"Ehh, it was-a nothing" Luigi responded as he recovered from the fall.

Mario continued to fight Bowser and Bowser Jr., dealing with the two of them not all too bad as he had done such multiple times in the past. Bowser at this point however about had enough of this.

"That's enough of our charade, it's time to pull out the big guns," Bowser stated.

Bowser then proceeded to blast Mario with a fireball, which this time hit Mario and knocked him down, allowing him and Bowser Jr. to go through with their plan. Bowser pulled out a remote and pushed a button on it, opening a trapdoor within the ship and elevated to the flagship's ground level two similar looking vehicles.

They had a tall bowl shape, a propeller below in the center, a green rim at the top. And on one the body of the vehicle was a face, the face was a large, orange lipped smile, and a pair of black eyes with dashes on either side of each eye. A rather goofy look no less, these said vehicles were clown cars, one being smaller than the other; this one of course being Bowser Jr's. Bowser and Jr. both quickly made their way to the clown cars, jumped into them, and started them up and propelled them into the air.

Mario, having recovered and gotten back on his feet, saw what Bowser and Bowser Jr had done, his retort being that he put his hands on his face and exclaimed, "Oh-a NO!"

Link and Hoops, having not realized the situation with Bowser and Bowser Jr., continued their brawl with Roy, avoiding bullet bills from his cannon and directing them away from themselves to avoid harm. Realizing they needed to get rid of the cannon, Link made a bluff.

"Aah! What's that!?" Link yelled, pointing behind Roy.

"What the- What is?" Roy said, looking where Link pointed.

While he was looking the other way, Link then proceeded to pull out a bomb of his own, ignited it, and shoved it into the bill cannon.

"Hmm, guess it was nothing," Roy said, "Now to-" Roy continued as he attempted to fire his cannon, not realizing it's jammed. Puzzled by this, Roy said, "Hmm...why won't this work…" As he questioned this, he peeked into the cannon. Right when he did so however, the cannon blew up in his face, sending him flying into the air.

Link used this as a chance to unleash his own barrage on Roy, shooting hit down with several beams from his sword, spinning Roy around as the shots hit him. Hoops then, to wrap things up, ran after the plummeting koopa, jumped into the air and tucked himself into his shell and spun into Roy, knocking him away and causing him to continue to fall out of the sky and down to the land below.

"Goodbye! And don't come back!" Hoops yelled to him as he continued falling. Link and Hoops then gave one another a high five afterward.

"Now, we should go help the others out," Link said.

Only for the two to then hear another explosion and the ship shake. The two looked in the direction of the explosion and saw Mario running from Bowser and Jr. in their clown cars. They then hear a shot from a magic blast to the other direction, and see that Luigi, Peach, Toad, Mosaic, Berry and Rosy were all fleeing Wendy, Iggy, Ludwig, and Kamek and then seeing Toad dodge the blast fired his way. Both fleeing in panic, Mario and Mosaic ran into one another and fell over.

"Mario! We need your help!" Mosaic said to Mario in a panic.

"That's what I should-a be saying!" Mario replied, then pointing at his problem, being Bowser and Jr. The Koopalings, at least those not taken down yet, and Kamek cornered the seven and were prepared to fire a barrage on them.

Before they could do so, however, a bomb went flying into Bowser Jr's clown car and exploded on it, knocking the airborne vehicle onto the ship, and the driver, being Bowser Jr. himself out of the driving seat of it. This was done so by Link's quick thinking. Bowser Jr then attempted to start up the clown car again but found himself unable due to it being too damaged, making him kick it out of annoyance.

"He he ha! But it doesn't matter! I still have "these!" Bowser Jr said, then pulling out another green shell and throwing it toward Mario.

Mario reacted with precision by knocking the Koopa shell away with his hammer, causing it to hit Iggy instead, bounce off of him, then hitting Wendy as well, knocking both of them into a wall, knocking both unconscious.

It was now that Bowser realized his numbers were tight, and orders for Bowser Jr., Ludwig, and Kamek to attack the group. Bowser himself then tried to ram into the group with his own Clown Car, however, failed to hit them and missed. As this occurred, Kamek blasted the group with several blasts from his wand, also not landing a hit.

Amidst the fighting continuing, Mosaic had something else on his mind. He looked in the sky at the armada and realized something vital. At this point they could be getting dangerously close to the Castle of Grassland, when taking down Bowser is just a secondary goal, their main one is to stop his armada. He then on the edges of the flagship noticed a bunch of large cannons, which looked as if they were both pretty strong and fired a rather long range; This gave him an idea.

Ludwig charged in Mosaic's direction in an attempt to pound on him, which the latter dodged before he could do so. And started to run for the control room, which had been left open all this time.

Having noticed this, Bowser yelled, "Ludwig! Stop him while we deal with these other meddlers!"

"Will do King Dad!" Ludwig responded, then going after Mosaic.

Ludwig went inside the control room, and scanned the room looking for Mosaic, and is not able to find him anywhere. This is because of the fact that, at this point, Mosaic had already managed to find his way into the room with a control board that configured the settings of the flagship.

"Ah, here we are," Mosaic said.

On the board he found a large round blue button reading 'Cannon Settings' which Mosaic pressed. This brought up a menu on the interface which showed how the cannons should work and what setting to put them on. Mosaic set every single one to 'Auto' and to aim in the directions of the other airships. The system asked for confirmation, which Mosaic selected 'Yes'.

"This should be a cinch now," Mosaic stated.

 **V: Falling Apart**

By now, Ludwig had realized where Mosaic was and made his way into the room, then said, "There you are! Now to stop you!" Ludwig then once again tried to crush Mosaic.

Mosaic however with quick thinking intercepted with a punch infused with his Chillokinenis energy, smacking Ludwig against a wall and knocking him out. Mosaic then made his way out of the flagship cannons' control area and back into the control room, where he decided to look at the controls at the commander's seat of the flagship. As he looked over all the things on it, he noticed a hidden compartment on it. He proceeded to open, curious of what it was.

What he found underneath was something that he couldn't believe he was actually seeing. It was a big, bright red, round button, which was lined with black stripes. However, that wasn't the eye-catching detail, the most eye-catching detail was what the bright yellow letters imprinted on it spelled; 'SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON'.

Mosaic upon seeing this thought to himself, "Is he seriously that stupid? Eh, best not to look a gift Yoshi in the mouth," and then proceeded to press it, it then activated a red flashing alarm and a digitized voice saying the self-destruction sequence would active in ten minutes. After pressing the button, Mosaic went off to go tell the others, unaware that Ludwig had regained consciousness and realized the same thing.

Meanwhile, the others continued to fight Bowser, Jr., and Kamek. However, at this point, the only one they had left to deal with was Bowser as they had dealt with the other two, which they wasted no time in doing so. Peach hurled a bomb at his clown car, which damaged the vehicle. Bowser countered with ducking inside the clown car and dropping a large, gray ball onto the group, which the group avoided with ease thanks to its slow speed. Bowser then threw a pair of bob-ombs down at the group. One of which landed near Toad. Before Toad could flee from the bomb, it exploded in his face, causing him to lose his fire power. Toad is distraught at this fact, however, Link gives him a bit of encouragement.

"Don't worry Toad, we'll beat him without that," He proceeded to tell him.

Luigi, who was close enough to the other bob-omb to put it to use, haphazardly picked it up and hurled it at Bowser's vehicle again, damaging the vehicle once more.

Bowser, realizing his vehicle was heavily damaged, had the face on his clown car take on a more angry expression and start diving bombing and shaking the ground. The group fled from the rampant vehicle to avoid being crushed as they tried to find an opening, finding it hard to get one as Bowser had wised up and stopped throwing bob-ombs their way. As Mario ran and tried to think of what to do, he came across something on the ground. This object was a stray cannonball lying on the ground, presumably being the same one shot by Morton earlier. Mario grabbed the cannonball and tucked it under his arm.

As he continued to keep his distance from the clown car, he yelled, "Hoops! Dig into the bag and throw me the springboard!"

Seeing Mario's plan, Hoops agreed and dug into the bag and found the springboard and looked closely for a good opportunity to throw it to him. At this point, however, Mario had jumped into the air and was dangerously close to the clown car, having the feeling it was now or never, Hoops threw the springboard Mario's way as they plummeted to the solid ground, intercepting this and causing Mario to be propelled back up, to Bowser's surprise. Mario then, as if he were dunking a basketball in a sports event, dunked the cannonball into the clown car, knocking the contraption onto the ship and it's driver down and out.

"Did...Did I lose?" Bowser said, having quickly regained consciousness.

Team S.M.B.X, Hoops, Rosy and Berry all surrounded him.

"Yes, yes you did," Peach proceeded to say, and followed with, "Now, we'll accept your unconditional surrender."

"Surrender? Hah!" Bowser said in a seemingly cocky tone. "You must be kidding. I still have the weapons on my flagship to barrage the Grassland Castle, and besides, I still have the rest of the fleet," Bowser continued to brag, seeming to think he still had the upper hand.

Everyone then heard a loud bang, and looked in its direction, realizing it came from one of the other airships, which had just been struck with a giant gaping hole being made through it from...the flagship's own cannons? Everyone then realized the other ships had begun to suffer the same fate, all of them starting to plummet to ground below, crashing and burning.

At this point, Bowser Jr. Kamek and five of the Koopalings regained consciousness and looked for where Bowser could be, and then realized he was near the others.

"Or so you thought you had a fleet left," Hoops tautly told Bowser. "So, what'll it be?" Hoops then questioned.

Bowser tries to think of what answer to give when suddenly Mosaic comes running back and jumps on Bowser Jr.'s head again to tell the others of his exploits.

"Guys! I rigged the cannons to shoot the airships, so that's taken care of; however, we need to get off this flagship, because I've pressed it's self destruct button and this place will blow at any minute!" Mosaic informed the others.

Kamek heard this, and questioned Bowser's intelligence, asking him, "Your wickedness...a self destruct button? Really?"

Bowser makes an attempt to justify this with an explanation. "I included it because I could have needed it in case of an emergency, but it's okay that this one's falling apart, we can just head back to base and build another fleet all over again," Bowser said, then rushing for his Clown Car again, with six of the seven Koopalings as well as Bowser Jr all getting into the clown car and start making their getaway.

"Oh no you don't!" Peach said, and hurled a bomb at the clown car one last time, the blast finally knocking the clown car out of the sky, sending Bowser and his children plummeting down to the land below. Down below, Roy Koopa had landed and had just started to regain his consciousness, only to look up and see the clown car about to crash on him.

Kamek, realizing he's heavily outnumbered said, "Welp, the place is falling apart anyway, and I gotta split, tootles." Then flying away on his broom.

"What do we do-a now? The ship is-a crumbling and we have no way to get-a off of it." Luigi said, sounding scared.

"That's...actually a good-a question," Mario replied, then, along with everyone else, frantically looking for a way off. Mosaic as he looked around, took a look at the mainland from the edge of the ship the control room was on and saw in the distance a peculiar place; Grassland Castle. Mosaic then noticed another detail that due to all of the action, he hadn't noticed until now. There was a staircase on the side that lead above the control room, and in this place was...a large cannon. Mosaic realized that this was perfect.

"We'll escape the fleet the way we caught it! With a cannon!" Mosaic stated, then pointing at the cannon.

"How do you know we'll be fine?" Hoops asked Mosaic.

"So basically, because of where that cannon is pointing, we'll be able to swivel it towards Grass Land, and then launch ourselves in that direction, and if we also land in the right velocity then-" Mosaic started to explain in detail.

"So in summary, we'll land in a safe place?" Hoops asked, interrupting Mosaic.

"That's correct," Mosaic answered, and then proceeded to say, "Now everyone, get into cannon so we can aim towards Grassland Castle."

Everyone, even Luigi, said okay. And each of them one by one as they did earlier blast down towards the castle, hoping for the best.

 **VI: Closure**

Down below, a toad that stood guard in front of Grassland Castle was going about his business in a discussion with another toad, then saw the group falling out of the sky, and quickly rushed into the castle to get something to break their fall, and came back out in time with a blue trampoline. The group all landed on it, that being, everyone other than Luigi, who landed flat on his face a feet inches off. Mosaic looked around, realizing that they're on the ground and that they're all okay.

"See, told you guys," Mosaic stated.

The two toads then began to clap a round of applause for their heroes and explain how they saw the airships were coming and how they started exploding, also asking them if it was their doing.

"Guilty! Hope you didn't mind," Rosy replied to them.

"We didn't, in fact, for all your guys' heroism and saving our fair land once again, we'd like to invite you all for dinner in our castle," One of the toads said.

"Once again?" Mosaic asked.

"Yeah, several years ago, the Mario Brothers, Mario, and Luigi once saved our land from Bowser, or one of his children, Larry Koopa, and this time, they saved their kingdom from even Bowser himself this time around" the toad explained.

"That's very interesting, are we all invited to this party?" Mosaic then asked.

Though he realized he just said they were, the toad ignored it and proceeded to say, "Yes you are, now, all of you come on in, our king is just dying to talk with you all of your exploits."

As Team S.M.B.X and The Mosaic group entered the castle, Hoops said, "Nice! A victory meal to go with our victory in battle."

 _ **"And so, once again our heroes managed to triumph over the evil Bowser and his armada. This wouldn't be the last of their adventures, far from in fact, their day today was just another day of familiarity in...the life of heroes."**_

 _ **Next Time...Chapter 3: Prickly Scales**_


	3. Chapter 3

**I: Preparing For Another Meeting**

 ** _"Only yesterday, the Mosaic Group along with Team S.M.B.X had bested Bowser and the Koopa Troop once again, maintaining peace in the land. However, the two groups both had no time to rest, as today, they both had new business to attend to."_**

Inside the Mosaic Group's house, they were rather busy. Hoops was already ready, not needing to do much to prepare and had put himself in a laid back position on the sofa, throwing a red rubber ball across the room at the wall over and over out of boredom, waiting on the others along with Berry.

"As usual, Rosy is taking her sweet time..." Hoops said out of annoyance.

Meanwhile in Berry and Rosy's room, Rosy was trying to make a decision.

"Hmm...what look should I go with today?" Rosy contemplated as looked over her makeup options. "I could try that blush today," she considered. "No, doesn't appeal to be honest. Or i could dye my fur black or red… Not enough time," she then decided. "Hmm...i think i look good just the way I am so...let's just use the same look we did yesterday!" Rosy then decided, pulling out her fur treatment gel and applying it.

Mosaic got onto the phone in his room and dialed a number. The person on the other end of the line shortly picked up after a couple rings.

"Hello! What's-a up Mosaic?" The voice on the other end said.

"So Mario, how are things going with the cleanup of the airship parts at Grassland?" Mosaic asked.

"Oh, well…" Mario started, only for another voice to chime in.

"It's going pretty well from the looks of it!" the new speaker said, being Peach.

"Yeah, and we should be able to make it back home by tonight if we keep this up and finish it today," a third voice on the phone added, being Toad's.

"That's great news!" Mosaic replied. He then asked a question that had been on his mind. "Hey, actually I had a question," Mosaic began. "Did you see Bowser and his minions anywhere in the wreckage?"

"Actually...oddly enough, we didn't-a see them anywhere, they seem to-a have slipped away," Mario replied.

"Ah, I see," Mosaic responded to this.

"Umm excuse me, but, who are you guys chatting with on there?" A fourth voice then asked, being Link's.

"We're-a chatting with Mosaic," Mario replied.

"Ah, I see, could I talk with him for a second?" Link asked.

"Sure-a thing Link!" Mario replied, handing him the phone.

"Hey Mosaic, I wanted to mention something to you," Link started.

"Oh? What is it?" Mosaic asked.

"If you and the others find anything interesting during your meeting with them, think you'd want to show us?" Link asked him. "It sorta sucks that i can't see what you and group are, as I would have found it interesting to, so could you?"

"Sure Link, i'll try to remember," Mosaic responded to this.

"That's all i wanted to say, now I'm going to give Mario back the phone so he can finish up, alright? So bye!" Link said, then handing it back over to Mario.

"Okie dokie, so with-a that, we're going to get-a back to what we're-a-" Mario started to say, only to be cut off by a fifth voice.

"Umm, are you a guys talking to Mosaic?" this person asked, being Luigi.

"Yeah, we-a were, and we were just-a finishing up," Mario said.

"Oh? Could I get-a word-a in?" Luigi asked.

"Of-a course!" Mario said, giving Luigi the phone.

"Umm Mosaic, I just wanted to-a tell you, be sure that you, Hoops and the-a others are careful okay?" Luigi said to Mosaic nervously.

"Luigi...we'll be fine, we do this all the time," Mosaic responded.

"Ah...I guess-a so," Luigi responded. "Umm, i'm going to hand this back to my-a brother, okay?" he continued.

"Alright, cya," Mosaic responded.

Luigi handed the phone to Mario so that he could finish up for real this time around. "So with all-a that said and-a done, we're going to get-a back to our-a work so we can-a finish up this up today and we can all head home," Mario then said, trying to finish up. "So with that, see you and the others-a later Mosaic! Bye!" Mario finished.

"Okay Mario, see you later too!" Mosaic responded, then clicking the 'End call' button on his phone.

"Now, with that taken care of, let's see if the others are ready yet," Mosaic said, starting by knocking on the door to Rosy and Berry's room. "Rosy? Are you finished getting ready yet?" Mosaic asked through the door.

"Pretty much, I was just putting the finishing touches and should be ready to go," Rosy answered.

"Okay good, be ready soon, we're meeting them really early," Mosaic said.

"I will," Rosy replied.

Mosaic afterwards headed down stairs, then saw both Hoops and Berry were on the sofa.

"Oh? You guys are both already finished preparing?" Mosaic asked them.

"Yeah," Hoops responded.

"We're just waiting on Rosy now…" Hoops said.

"I see," Mosaic replied. "Also Hoops," Mosaic continued.

"Yes Mosaic?" Hoops responded.

"Where are you keeping that Rainbow Star until a point comes that we need it?" Mosaic then asked.

"Oh that, i'm just keeping it in a box in our room," Hoops informed.

"Okay good, that should work out then," Mosaic said.

Berry then asked a question in his language.

"Oh? What is it Berry?" Mosaic asked.

Hoops then translated for Mosaic. "Oh, he asked where we're getting ready to go again." he answered.

"Oh yeah that, we're heading to Desert Land today to meet with Glow and Beryl," Mosaic answered.

Berry shuddered fearfully upon Mosaic's answer.

"Berry? What's the matter?" Mosaic asked.

"Umm, Mosaic, did you forget? Berry's afraid of Glow." Hoops reminded Mosaic.

"Oh, he is? Why is it again?" Mosaic asked Hoops, not remembering the reason why himself.

"Well, he's a Cobrat, and Berry's afraid of Cobrats," Hoops explained.

"Wow, I had completely forgotten," Mosaic replied. "We can't really let him stay home with all of us out though, he's only seven years old," Mosaic stated. "So Berry, sorry, but you'll need to come along," Mosaic told him.

Though he didn't want to come, Berry said in their language "Alright i guess..."

"At this point," Mosaic started. "Rosy should be down here about any minute, as soon as they are, we can-"

"We can leave?" someone else interrupted. This being Rosy, who had already come downstairs, ready to go.

Mosaic looked at Rosy a bit, trying to think about what he was trying to say, and then said, "Yes, we can get going now." and then continued, "Come on Berry and Hoops, let's go," Mosaic told Berry and Hoops, walking over to the door while doing so, in which Berry and Hoops got off the sofa afterwards.

Mosaic went through the front door with the rest of the group, making their way down the path, however, instead of taking the path to Vibrant Park like yesterday, they instead took the path leading the opposite direction.

"So...why are we taking this path again?" Hoops asked Mosaic.

"We're going this way so we can take the warp pipe to Desert Land, Glow and Beryl's place of residence," Mosaic explained.

"Ah, I see," Hoops responded. "So, why do you think that they wanted to meet with us today you think?" Hoops then asked.

"I don't know," Rosy replied.

"Rosy, I wasn't talking to you necessarily," Hoops unamusingly responded.

"I was just sharing my opinion on your question," Rosy responded.

Hoops rolled his eyes a bit, saying, "Whatever," after doing so.

"To be honest, it could a number of things, considering how they want us to meet them bright and early, it's possible they just want to eat breakfast with us," Mosaic said, sharing his speculation. "Or, they could also have discovered something interesting and want us to come take a look at it, that's another possibility," Mosaic continued.

"Either way, I personally hope that's it's something that I think is intriguing," Hoops said.

"Me too," Mosaic replied.

The group continued to make their way down the path, passing more buildings and continuing down the concrete path eventually coming across a green warp pipe, this very one leading to Desert Land. "Alright, here it is. To Desert Land we go!" Mosaic said, then jumping into the pipe, in which Hoops, Rosy and Berry one by one followed his lead.

 **II: Deserted Desert Land**

Upon the four making to the other end of the pipe, the four of them wound up in Desert Land, a region in which it's climate was practically the opposite of Mushroom Plains, or to say, it had similar traits to Mushroom Plains, such as being plentiful in ? blocks, bricks, note blocks and warp pipes all around, but a number of things were very different. Mushroom Plains had generally warm days, but Desert Land's on the other hand were hot. Mushroom Plains was lush and green, plant life growing from the dirt and soil as far as the eye could see. Desert Land on the other hand was covered left and right with sand and a tan climate instead with the only plant life being a cactus here and there. While Mushroom Plains had spontaneous bodies of water in it's landscape, Desert Land only had the occasional oasis. Overall, compared to Mushroom Plains, Desert Land wasn't the most visually stunning place to be in, however, it was where they were meeting with their two friends at.

"Alright, now that we're here, let's go find them," Mosaic informed the group, in which they nodded.

After a bit of searching without finding the two anywhere, they end up near some walls made of sandstone, on them were markings imprinted in the shape of a flame, while they were there, eventually Hoops brought up a question.

"Mosaic, are you sure they told us to meet with them in desert land?" Hoops asked Mosaic.

"Well...i'm pretty sure anyway," Mosaic responded.

"Oh? Well…did they tell you where to meet them here?" Hoops then asked next.

"Yeah, they told me 'Meet with us at the sandstone structure with the markings on them' Mosaic started to respond. "But...now that I think about it, they didn't tell me what the markings looked like," Mosaic continued.

"They...didn't?" Hoops asked.

"Not that I remember, no," Mosaic replied.

"Oh no...this is not good, does that mean we'll just be wandering in circles until we find them?" Hoops said.

"Umm Hoops…" Rosy started.

Ignoring Rosy's statement, Hoops continued. "We could be looking for them for hours, days, weeks even!"

"Hoops…" Mosaic stated.

"We could then eventually start seeing mirages, and then we'll all lie on the ground from exhaustion, and then eventually-" Hoops continued before being interrupted.

"Hoops, slow down…" Mosaic said.

"It's alright, I was just fooling around, i'm pretty sure we'll find them soon," Hoops replied.

"Oh...I hadn't realized," Mosaic said in response.

"Well, let's keep looking for them, we don't want to keep them waiting," Rosy said. "After all, you need to remember, maybe they just didn't remember the-" Rosy started to say, before she ran into something prickly, or to be more accurate, someone, hurting her a bit. "Ow! Watch where your-" Rosy began to say, looking up, stopping when she realized whom and what she was looking at.

They had ran into a tall plant like creature resembling a cactus, their body was separated into four roundish segments, each one around a bit under two feet in height, all over these segments were short thorns protecting their body, and on the top segment was a face, which consisted of two round eyes and a small mouth below. The creature notably also had no limbs; A pokey. However, this wasn't just any generic pokey, though pokeys were normally green, yellow, or orange, this one in peculiar's body was instead a shade of brown, and their eyes had a silver hue to them. This was Beryl. Beryl turned around once this happened and looked down.

"Oh! Hey Rosy! Thought you'd guys show up eventually," Beryl said. "Oh...and also, sorry about that," Beryl said. As he said it, his body faded from his normal brown to a hot shade of pink for a moment.

"Hey Beryl, there's no need to be embarrassed, it was an accident, and i'm fine," Rosy said.

"Ah, you've noticed, I can never hide my feelings from you guys, given that i seem to change color when i'm feeling a certain way," Beryl informed as his body reverted back to his normal brown.

"Hey Beryl, what'ssssss going on?" a voice said. Everyone looked in the direction the voice came from.

The voice came from a creature. This creature had a serpent like appearance; Their body was limbless and scaled, their eyes large, white, and round; And they sat their body upright, bringing them to a bit higher than a human's height. A cobrat.

This cobrat specifically however was a special case, the scales that ran down a cobrat's body were commonly red, however this cobrat's scales were instead teal in color. Along with this, their underside was green as opposed to the regular tan color. Their eyes were also a gleaming yellow as opposed to the normal black. And perhaps the most notably detail of all, they wore a red handkerchief around their, or more specifically, his neck. This was Glow.

"Oh great, the Mosssaic group'ssss here!" Glow continued.

"Yeah Glow, I was just talking with them because a little accident happened with me and Rosy, but everything's fine," Beryl answered Glow.

Berry, upon seeing Glow, let out a fearful whine and then rushed over to Mosaic for comfort and put his arms around his leg.

"It's okay to stay near me if you feel you need to," Mosaic quietly said to Berry, acknowledging his reaction. Mosaic then turned his attention to Glow and Beryl, mainly the former however to talk with them. "Hey Glow," Mosaic started "So how's has it been going?" Mosaic then said, stretching his hand out to give Glow a handshake despite his lack of.

"Not much really," Glow replied, as he used his tail in place of a hand to shake "hands" with him.

"Yeah, eventfulness for us has been rather...SLIM, am I right Glow?" Beryl said, cracking a pun, then laughing a bit at his own joke, becoming a shade of green for a bit while doing so.

Glow looking in his direction responded, "Yeah, I guessssss you could sssssay that."

"Glow, if i may ask, could you give us a bit more accurate directions next time?" Mosaic asked.

"Huh? I told you to meet us here, 'on the walls with the markings on it', didn't I?" Glow asked in response.

"Yeah you did, but I feel it would have helped to tell us what exactly the markings looked like," Mosaic explained.

"Ah I ssssssee, my apologiesssss, i'll remember to give you more details next time," Glow replied.

A low growl then came from somewhere. Glow then realized it was coming from his stomach. "Oh...we sssshould eat breakfassssst actually," Glow said, a bit embarrassed.

"You haven't eaten yet either huh?" Hoops asked Glow.

"Nope" Glow responded. "And neither hasssss Beryl I believe, correct?" Glow asked him.

"I don't remember doing so," Beryl replied.

"I feel that we should before we show you guys what we found," Glow continued. "Come on, follow me," Glow then finished.

Once he finished, he starting slithering away with the upper half of his body arched upright, leading the way to the others, with them following.

 **III: A Little Grab N Dash**

A bit of time later on, Glow made it to where he lead them, this place being the inside of a rather small pyramid. The interior was a little small, however, it was still a tad bit cozy.

"So we're eating breakfast in this small place?" Hoops asked, not the most excited to hear his answer.

"Yessssss we are," Glow answered Hoops' question.

Despite not considering the pyramid the most desirable place, he graciously gave an, "Okay…" to Glow.

The Mosaic Group observed the room to figure out where to sit, quickly noticing a table surrounded with five chairs in the corner of the pyramid, in which they sat and waited for the food to be ready.

"So, what do you guys think they're going to serve?" Mosaic asked the others, in an attempt to make conversation while they waited.

"Well...what do cobrats and pokeys eat?" Rosy asked.

"Don't think that's what we should be asking, considering their preparing stuff for us," Hoops stated.

"True," Mosaic replied.

"To be honest, i'm not all that sure then," Rosy said.

"Me personally? I'm going to make a wild guess and say their going to serve fruit and eggs of some kind, probably you know, melons, bananas, yoshi eggs…" Hoops started.

As soon as Hoops said the third thing, Berry began to put up a fuss. Hearing him however, Hoops quickly stopped him and justified his words.

"Hey, calm down Berry, I was just messing around, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't actually serve that, especially with you here." Hoops explained to Berry.

Berry understood, but asked if he could please not joke like that in his language, in which Hoops said he'll see.

"Alright guys, here's the food," Beryl said, balancing it on his head. Realizing he didn't have a simple way to put it down, Beryl made a statement. "Also, LOOK OUT BELOW!" Beryl yelled, then throwing the plate off his head and towards the table, as the plate fell, the Mosaic Group ducked to avoid it. After they had risen back up after it had passed, they saw the plate had landed safely, along with it's contents. On the plate was many slices of fruit. There were slices of apples, oranges, bananas, honeydew, and watermelon on it.

"Yep, I was right," Hoops boasted, seeing that his prediction on the food was correct.

"Half right actually," Mosaic stated. "We'll see if your completely right once-" Mosaic continued before being interrupted.

"And here'sssss the other food," Glow said, sliding into the room, holding a platter in his mouth. He then loosened his grip on the platter and set it on the table alongside the fruit.

On this platter was food that based on how it looked seemed to be sunny side ups.

"I...hope my other prediction is wrong but..." Hoops began, seeing the look on Berry's face. "Glow? What kind of eggs were those made from?" Hoops asked with nervousness in his voice.

"I made them from birdo eggssss," Glow answered in response, sounding sincere.

"Phew...that's a relief, I thought for a sec those were...were..." Hoops started to say.

"Yosssshi Eggssss?" Glow asked. "I would never do that knowing you were bringing Berry along," He then explained.

Hoops remained a bit silent, wondering what response he should give. "Eh alright then, let's eat," Hoops said, dropping the conversation.

After everyone had gotten some food and eaten a bit. they started chatting about random subjects.

"Glow, I realized something," Rosy started. "Because of how barren this desert is and due to that there isn't much to eat around here, where do you and Beryl get most of your food?" Rosy asked.

"Oh, we usually go to this market around three miles north of here and buy stuff from a grocery store," Glow replied, answering Rosy's question.

"Three miles? Isn't that kind of far without any kind of transportation?" Mosaic asked.

"Well, not necessarily," Glow responded. "Beryl has a magic carpet he usually uses to get around which gets us there in around ten minutes or less most of the time," Glow continued.

"How often do you guys go?" Hoops then asked afterwards. "We ussssually go around once every week," Glow answered.

After a bit more silence, Mosaic eventually asked Glow another question. "So, when are we going to see what you guys found?"

"Yeah, and what exactly is it you want to show us?" Hoops added.

"Both of you guysssss ssssshould get an anssssswer after we have breakfasssssst," Glow answered both of them.

"Alright then, i guess that'll do," Mosaic and Hoops said simultaneously.

"Hah! That's the second day in a row, you owe me a Golden Leaf now," Hoops said.

"Oh no...wait a minute…you're joking again right?" Mosaic asked.

"Of course," Hoops responded.

As the group continued to eat, Berry had eaten all of his food, that is, except there was something on his plate he avoided, being his apple slices.

"Oh, Berry? Issss there sssssomething wrong with them that i'm not aware of?" Glow asked Berry.

Berry was hesitant to give an answer, not just because of his fear of Glow, but that he didn't want to be rude.

"Berry, If something's wrong with it, you can tell me," Rosy suggested to Berry.

Berry henceforth explained himself to Rosy in his language.

"Oh, so you don't like apples all that much huh?" Rosy said, having understood him.

"Well, if that's that case, I could take care of that for you if you wanted," Rosy offered, starting to reach her paw towards his plate.

"Nah, Rosy, I think Berry should eat them, even if he doesn't like them," Beryl intervened.

"Oh…?" Rosy responded.

"Yeah, it's because I heard apples are a good source of water," Beryl started to explain. "And especially when you're living in the desert it's important that you stay hydrated...to your core!" Beryl then stated, taking a chance at another pun. Not realizing the pun, everyone was silent for quite a bit of time. "Umm...get it?" Beryl asked, starting to turn a bit purple again. After more time passed with no response, Beryl started to speak. "Well, guess i'll explain it, basicall-"

"Wait...wait wait wait, don't tell me, i think i may get it," Hoops interrupted. "Is it because...apples have a core?" Hoops then asked.

"Exactly," Beryl answered.

"Hmm, I suppose that was kinda clever," Hoops said in response.

After everyone had finished their food, the six all made their way out of the pyramid, and Glow lead the group to their next destination.

"Phew...glad to be out of there," Mosaic stated aloud. "Have plans of moving into a new place someday?" Mosaic asked Glow.

"Well, I ssssssorta plan to sssssomeday, it'ssss jusssst that it'sssss the bessssst I can afford assssss of now," Glow answered.

"Well, I hope that day is soon, because I'm with Mosaic, it was a bit cramped in there, especially considering the lack of windows," Hoops added to the conversation.

After a brief pause, Hoops then asked, "So...where are we going now?"

"We're on our way to the place we wanted to show you guys I believe?" Beryl stated.

"Yeah, that'sssssss what we're doing now," Glow said, affirming Beryl was correct.

After treading through the dusty landscape for a bit longer, Glow and Beryl eventually lead the Mosaic Group to a large door, reaching around Glow's height. The door looked a bit more decorative than the average door however. This door was red in color, near the edges was a golden border that went along the door, forming a rectangle shape, and the door's knob looked to be made of solid gold.

"Hey...isn't that a door to..." Rosy stated.

"Sssssubcon," Glow responded to Rosy, knowing what she was going to ask.

"So the thing that you want to show us is in Subcon?" Mosaic asked Glow.

"Correct," Glow affirmed.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Hoops stated as he made his way over to the door to open it. "Lets GOoooooooh!" Hoops yelled after opening it, as though he hadn't realized it until it was too late, the door lead to nothing on the other side, which caused him to start falling.

"Wow looks like he accidentally...took a trip, huh?" Beryl said. "Guess I'll need to follow," he then said. However, as soon as he saw his height compared to the door, he realized he'd need an accommodation to fit. "Hey Glow? Think you can help me out?" Beryl asked.

"Sssssure thing Beryl," Glow answered, sliding next to Beryl so he could do so.

Which he did by removing a couple of Beryl's segments and dropping them down through the door, shrinking him down enough to make it through the door.

"Looks like you really...cut me down to size, am I right?" Beryl said, then dropping down the door, hoping to land on top his separate segments upon landing.

Afterwards, Rosy along with Berry made the jump down as well.

"Well alright, here goes!" Mosaic said, and then jumped through the door and down to the terrain below.

As Mosaic fell, Glow prepared to go next, he eventually darted himself through the door, plummeting down as well.

 **IV: Same Landscape, Different Land**

One by one, each of the six fell, Hoops was first to land, having been the first to enter the door, and landed gracefully on his feet. Next up was Beryl, or atleast, half of him anyway, who landed right atop his two other segments like he hoped, after doing so, though he had become a yellow hue a bit, he momentarily changed to a light gray shade before finally going back to his regular brown shade, having been relieved to be okay. The next to fall were Berry followed by Rosy, whom bounced off Berry, breaking her falling a bit.

"Thanks Berry," Rosy said.

Berry didn't give much of a response, not realizing what she was thanking him for.

Mosaic fell next, and landed right on top of a cactus.

"Yeowch!" Mosaic yelled after doing so. "Talk about an unthankful landing!" Mosaic retorted.

"Hey Mosaic don't worry about it, that cactus may have been a THORN in your side, but now it's all good now," Beryl said.

"Eh…" Mosaic said, unassumed, but saw Beryl was trying to make the best of his scenario.

And finally, Glow fell from the sky, his slender body flailing about a bit as he did so. Everyone watched as he did, assuming he'd have a soft landing, however, he didn't. Upon hitting the ground, the large serpent spun into a ball and ran into a vase, unraveling upon hitting his head against it, dazing him a bit.

"Ow...that wasssss a painful landing," Glow stated, still feeling pain from the impact.

"Well...maybe if you were more careful that wouldn't have happened, so maybe remember next time?" Beryl stated, sounding a bit discouraging while saying so.

Rosy mentioned however to Glow. "Hey, don't worry about it, you're not alone on having a disconvient landing, Mosaic didn't land all too well either," she explained.

"Yeah...I didn't…" Mosaic stated.

"I ssssssssee," Glow said, having now have gotten his body arched back up and recovered.

By now, the six had made it to subcon, the place in subcon however looked rather familiar. This place was a desert like where they just were, however, there was a number of clear differences, for one, there wasn't a single brick, ? or note block nor warp pipe in sight. It seemed that in place of this the landscape was riddled with vases, both large and small all over the place. In the ground, on the hills, in the sky, just about everywhere. And as well as that, there seemed to be bones lying here and there too. However, other than that, the other scenery looked quite familiar, there was water nowhere to be seen, there was a cactus here and there, and the ground they stood was of course just sand and dust as far as the eye could see. In general, it visually wasn't much of an improvement over Desert Land.

"Alright, now to ssssshow you guyssss what we found, thissssss way gang," Glow informed, continuing to lead the group.

As they made their way to it, Hoops started up another conversation. "To be honest, this is starting to feel kind of redundant, I feel you guys have keep us in suspense long enough, what did you guys find?" Hoops asked, bored of all the walking they've been doing.

"I suppose we should tell them," Beryl suggested.

"Ssssure, fire away," Glow told Beryl.

"So basically," Beryl started. "We found some odd pyramid," Beryl explained.

"A pyramid huh?" Mosaic replied. "What was so odd about it?" He then asked.

"Well, what we mainly found odd about it is where we found it," Beryl continued.

"Where did you find it?" Rosy asked, wanting to be a part of the conversation.

"Well…" Beryl began to say, only for Glow to say it first.

"We found it in a ravine with a sssssign next to it sssssayingm 'Caution! Large pit! No Trepassssssssing!'" He explained.

"And yeah, the sign actually said those things," Beryl mentioned.

"Wait, if it said to trespass, why'd you guys go down there?" Hoops questioned.

"Well, it wassssss kind of a funny ssssstory," Glow began to explain.

"Hey Glow, maybe we show and don't tell? I feel we've been keeping them waiting," Beryl interrupted.

"Ah, your ssssssorta right, i guesssss we'll just show the way there," Glow replied.

Eventually Glow and Beryl lead the four to the ravine they wanted to show them. They saw that the ravine looked like a sorta big drop, as it was around twelve feet deep at least.

"So, this is the ravine you guys found it in?" Mosaic asked.

"Indeed," Glow answered.

"Well, if it's such a long drop, how did you guys get down there?" Hoops then questioned.

"Oh, umm it'sssss becausssse umm...Beryl sorta accidently fell down there a bit earlier, and I had to go after him, and it was down there that we found the pyramid," Glow explained.

"And how did you get back out?" Hoops asked next.

"Oh, we found a way out of there," Beryl explained.

"Alright," Hoops answered. "Now, how did you get down there to help Beryl out?" Hoops then asked Glow.

"I sssssorta jusssssst...jumped down there to help him out," Glow answered, a bit hesitant.

"That's what I was afraid of…" Hoops answered.

"Hey, we're both in one piece, what'sssss the isssssssue?" Glow asked confusingly.

"Now I'm not sure how we should go down the ravine without just taking a straight up leap of faith," Hoops explained to be the problem.

"Hmm, that ssssorta issssss an issssssue," Glow replied. "What could be a good sssssolution?" He then asked the group.

"Well, we could try finding something around here, like a long vine or a springboard that'd ensure us a safe landing," Mosaic stated.

"Or...maybe I could fall again and break each of your guys falls?" Beryl inputted.

"Nah, let's not do that, it's fine," Hoops told Beryl.

"Or we could get in the same way that Glow and Beryl got out?" Rosy then suggested.

After Rosy said this, everyone froze.

"...that's…" Hoops started. "Actually a good idea…" Hoops finished, somewhat hesitant to do so.

"So, how did you two get out of the ravine after you found the pyramid?" Rosy then asked the two of them.

"Ah, we'll show you where we found the way out, this way," Beryl answered, tilting his head as he strafed to lead them towards it.

Beryl and Glow eventually lead the group to what was their escape ticket out of the ravine was. Showing that they found a vase that lead all the way down to the ravine, seeing that it was rather well hidden under some sand.

"So the two of you made it out the ravine through here huh?" Mosaic asked.

"Yeah, I had a pretty easssssy time ssssslipping through, being a cobrat, as did Beryl as he just needed to detach his segments to fit, so we should easily be able to do the same again." Glow answered and proceeded to then explain.

Soon enough, the six were making their way through the vase, which despite the outside's look, was oddly roomy on the inside.

"Wow, the outside really isn't what matters huh?" Mosaic commented.

"Indeed it'ssssss not," Glow mentioned.

The rest of the trip through the vase for the most part was rather quiet, not that anyone minded all that much. Before long, the six had each made it to the bottom and into the ravine itself, Hoops then looked up, seeing the view above.

"Welp, here we are, that wasn't so bad," Hoops mentioned.

"Now, to the pyramid!" Beryl declared, himself and Glow then once again continuing to lead.

Shortly after, the group made their way up a hill where the pyramid was located, with Beryl making it to the top first, upon doing so however, he saw something that didn't agree with him.

"Uh oh, guys...It looks like we have some company," Beryl informed the group, asking them to come take a look.

Presuming it'd be important, the rest of the group came to take a look, and indeed what he saw didn't look so good.

There was several different figures there, each of which had different appearances. Some of them were fairly short and wore robes in many different colors such as red, blue, etc. and the most characteristic feature of all, their masks, which were white in color and had holes in a shape that resembled a pair of eyes and a mouth, and along with it they also wore shoes coming in multiple colors such as brown or purple. Shy Guys.

There weren't only shy guys there however, along with them, there were also several other creatures. Some looked very similar to Shy Guys, they had all the same features a shy guy did, the only difference being that their masks were dark grey as opposed to white, and the hole that normally resembled a mouth instead had an extended nozzle in place of it, these were snifts.

There were several others that had somewhat star shaped bodies, were generally black or purple in appearance, and had small teeth that stuck out of their mouths and were also rather short, these being ninjis.

There were also bird like creatures that, like shy guys wore masks with a beak part on them, as well as being around the size of shy guys along with that, these being tweeters.

And finally, there was one particular strange looking creature whom's body structure resembled that of a yoshi's, however, with many notable differences. they had a rounded white belly, with the rest of their body primarily being a single color, which in this case was red. Other visual features included the bow on their head, which generally varied in color, this one's bow being orange, and unlike Yoshis, this creature's spikes that ran across their tail as opposed to head as was the case with Yoshis. Unlike Yoshis, they also wore no shoes, revealing their feet, which had short, rounded claws per each toe, and on each of their fingers was a claw nail, though not too notable, they had small spots on their cheeks. And finally, perhaps their most notable anatomical feature, on their face they had a funnel shaped mouth. This strange creature was known as a Birdo, whom seemed to be leading the others there, as they were holding a notepad seemingly with a list of sorts in one hand.

 **V: It's Not Always Simple**

"Hmm...that could be a bit of a problem..." Mosaic stated. "And I presume they weren't here already when you guys found this pyramid?" Mosaic then asked the two.

"Not that I'm aware of, no, they weren't," Beryl answered.

"As I thought; this could be a bit of a problem, what should we do?" Mosaic then asked the entire group.

"Maybe they won't mind our pressssssscene there and they'll let usssss inside," Glow suggested.

Berry stated in his language that it doesn't hurt to at least try.

So as such, Glow slithered over and got the Birdo's attention. "Excusssssse me umm...umm...mam?" Glow asked the Birdo, unsure of their gender.

Looking up from their work, the Birdo responded, "Sir, also, what is it?"

"Umm, do you think you could let usssss in the pyramid?" Glow asked as polite as he could.

"Name?" the Birdo then asked.

"Umm, Glow," Glow replied.

"Glow who?" The Birdo asked, sounding a bit impatient.

"Glow, Glow the Cobrat?" Glow answered.

The Birdo then looked down at his notepad, seemingly consulting a list of names.

After reading over the list again, the Birdo looked up and gave him an answer.

"You're not on the list, no name, no entry. If you wanted to be a part of the pyramid investigation team, you should have asked King Wart about it at the beginning of this week," The Birdo told Glow.

"King Wart? He means...the leader of the 8-bits doesn't he?" Hoops thought to himself.

Glow seemed to realize who they were talking about too, and wanting to avoid getting into trouble, just acted casual about it. "Oh? I understand...I guess we'll need to come back later," Glow told the others, starting to turn around so they can leave.

As the group began to leave, Hoops ran in front of Glow and stopped him and began to explain something to him.

"Glow! Why are we turning around now?" Hoops asked.

Glow began to answer their question, "Well, they ssssssort of got here firssssssst, ssssssso we'll need to wait for them to leave and I prefer to not get into trouble with-"

"You realize who we're talking about though, right? These guys...they work for Wart, so they must be up to no good, am I right?" Hoops interrupted and explained.

"To be honest, Hoops has a point," Beryl told Glow. "You and all of us shouldn't be such doormats and let them walk all over us," Beryl continued to explain. Glow wasn't sure of the answer to give yet as Beryl then continued. "Plus, just because you don't got backbone, doesn't mean you can't have...BACKBONE, am I right?" Beryl said, being punny as usually.

As Beryl and Hoops continued to explain why they shouldn't just leave because the 8-bit members said so, eventually, said people started to overhear the conversation they were having, and began to walk over their direction, which Rosy noticed.

"Umm guys, they're hearing us…" Rosy said. Her warning however fell on deaf ears as the group continued to discuss. At this point, the 8-bits were just a meter from the group, and listened in on their conversation.

"I guesssssss you two are right, we ssssssshouldn't jusssssst let them control ussssss," Glow finally answered, starting to agree with Beryl and Hoops' statements. "let'ssssss not take denial of entrance ssssssitting down...and...go...give them...a piece of...our...mind?" Glow started to say, however slowing down when he turned around and realized the 8-bits were right next to them and could hear everything they were saying.

"So, you want to do things like that huh?" The Birdo said, unamused, throwing the notepad they were holding behind his shoulder where it landed on the ground.

Seeing the opportunity, Hoops decided to boast. "Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"A big problem," the Birdo responded. "Infact, why don't we make a deal?" The Birdo continued. "How about you guys versus us? The winners are the ones who stay, and the losers leave," The Birdo offered.

The group thought about this and decided to discuss it a sec.

"Should we go through with their offer?" Beryl asked the others.

"It'sssssss honesssssstly a real inconvenience for usssssss, however sssssssomething tellsssss me it'sssss the only way they'll let usssss through, sssso we unfortunately don't really have a choice here," Glow explained.

"So what this basically means is…" Hoops started.

"We're going through with it?" Mosaic finished and asked.

"Well, seems so," Rosy answered their questions.

"Alright then" Hoops said, the group then breaking from their discussion and turning back over to the 8-bits. "We've discussed and know what? We accept your offer," Hoops informed them.

"Very well, we'll begin on the count of five, so you better get your boxing gloves or whatever ready," The Birdo said, then proceeding to count. "Five...four...three...two…" However, instead of the Birdo saying one and then go, they then fired an egg at Mosaic, which seeing it flying his way, quickly kicked it away.

"Hey! That was four! You cheated!" Mosaic called out.

"And? What does that matter?" The Birdo responded. "8-bits! Charge!" The Birdo then commanded, which the Shy guys, Snifts, Ninjis, etc. responded by rushing towards the group.

"Let's show these 8-bits what were made of!" Hoops said, signaling the others to be ready to fight them, in which they agreed with, leading to the battle's outbreak.

Hoops started the brawl off by plucking a stray mushroom block off the ground and hurling it at a tweeter, knocking them out. Hoops looked upwards, and saw a Ninji sticking their foot out flying through the air in his direction. Seemingly in an attempt to jump kick him. Seeing their idea, Hoops thought outside the box and let them come. Once the ninji was point blank of him, Hoops grabbed them by their ankle with one front hand and grabbing the ninji by their waist with his other front one, then elevating them above himself in both hands, then, with a bit of effort hurling the struggling creature at a shy guy running his way, knocking them both out. A stray bullet went flying Hoops' way from a snift, barely missing, seeing the direction it came; from a snifit sporting a gray suit, Hoops ran their way.

Glow and Beryl meanwhile took on three shy guys and a snifit themselves. Glow inhaled, seemingly in preparation for a certain technique of his, then proceeding to exhale the air, except that instead of exhaling air, Glow had exhaled flaming breath, which he used to scorch two of the shy guys, neutralizing them. Beryl handled the remaining shy guy along with the snifit via rotating the segments of his body rapidly, which swiftly fired the thorns down at the shy guy and snifit. Not wanting to be hit, the shy guy and snifit fled, as they did so however, the snifit turned their head in Beryl's direction and fired a bullet. Seeing the shot coming however Beryl moved aside to avoid being hit.

"Let'ssss give them a tasssste of their own medicine." Glow stated, breathing in again preparing, not to breath fire again, but to fire a projectile from his mouth, this projectile being a bullet of their own.

This bullet however missed the snifit, in which Glow realized meant they'd probably have to take things closer up. Asking Beryl to come with him, Glow pursued the shy guy and snifit for close range combat.

Meanwhile Berry and Rosy fought a group of 8-bits, namely a tweeter, a ninji and a shy guy together. Berry had plucked some red grass that he found buried and had gotten his hands on a veggie that could be used as a projectile, which he held in his hand and waited for the right time to use it. Rosy on the other hand had no need as she had her natural abilities such as rolling to use, which she used to ram into the tweeter as it was coming her way, knocking them back hard into a wall and hitting them unconscious.

As Rosy landed, she yelled advice to Berry. "Berry! Use it!" she yelled.

Realizing what she was talking about, Berry hurled the veggie at the shy guy, which after hitting them bounced off them and hit the ninji as well, taking down both. Rosy and Berry then saw Hoops fighting a snifit and had the feeling they should help him out, so they ran his way.

Mosaic was engaged in a fistfight with the leader of the group, being the Red Birdo, they traded blow after blow with one another, however Mosaic was the one landing most of the hits while the Birdo wasn't. The Birdo eventually suddenly backed up and then began to unleash a barrage of eggs as well as fireballs on Mosaic, most of which he dodged with ease, then countering by using his chillokinesis techniques and hurling and firing numerous ice balls the Birdo's way. To block this the Birdo fired further flame balls at the ice balls hoping to melt them only for them to get the opposite effect and for the fire balls to be solidified in ice and land on the ground. Mosaic used this as a chance to pluck the ice blocks off the ground and hurl them at Birdo, which he hurled 3 consecutive blocks at him, dazing the dino.

Mosaic then looked around at the other fighting going on, seeing that Hoops, Rosy and Berry had just defeated a snifit and didn't have any baddies left that they were dealing with. He then saw what Glow and Beryl were doing and saw that Glow had grabbed a snifit with his tail. Which he saw he then switched his grip on them over to his mouth and spun around and hurled them at a wall, knocking them out.

"Well, it looks like you guys are losing," Mosaic began to inform the Birdo. "What do you say? You want to let us through while you guys leave?" Mosaic then himself offered.

It didn't take long for the Birdo to make a choice given his condition. "Know what...sure, you win…" The Birdo said. "8-bits! We're off duty! Retreat!" The Birdo announced to the other 8-bits, then quickly running to the vase leading out of the ravine with the rest of the 8-bits quickly following his lead as well.

The six then regrouped in a circle in front of the pyramid once the 8-bits had left.

"See Glow? That wasn't so bad," Hoops apprised.

"Well, I guesssssss sssssssso," Glow replied.

"I guess you could say they...chickened out?" Beryl said, trying to make another pun.

"But Birdos aren't chickens…" Mosaic stated in response.

"Eh, but their still bird creatures of some kind," Beryl rebutted in an attempt to justify his pun.

"I guess so," Mosaic just answered. "Now, with them gone, what are we waiting for? Let's explore this place!" Mosaic then proclaimed.

which the others gave a, "Right!" in agreement.

Afterwards, the group all at once made their way into the ancient secluding, eager to see what it had to offer.

 **VI: Puzzling, Isn't It?**

The inside of the pyramid looked how a pyramid generally would. The walls were tanish brown and looked as if a bunch of building blocks were stacked atop one another, sort of like a brick wall's bricks. There were along with this many pillars of the same color as the walls that lined the corridors of the pyramid, seeming to be something that keep the structure standing. The floor, though it had quite a bit of sand, there were also a few spots that instead had golden brown flooring made of stone or a similar material. And along with this there was inconceivable writing all over the walls, as if it was written in some ancient language of sorts.

"Hard to see with it so dark," Hoops stated.

The group however was in luck, as Glow could see well even in the dark. "No need to worry Hoopssssss, with my night vissssion, i'll try to find a light ssssssource the resssssst of you guyssssss can ussssse," Glow told Hoops.

"Yeah, that'll help out alot," Hoops replied.

Glow looked around for a short while and eventually found on the wall a wooden rod that had a flammable looking tip. "Hey, I think I found a torch," Glow told the others.

"That's great Glow! Could you point where it is?" Mosaic asked.

"Right here," Glow answered, using his tail to pinpoint it. Mosaic picked up the torch but realized something about it.

"Wait, this torch isn't lit," Mosaic stated. "Glow, think you can help us out?" Mosaic then asked.

"Oh ssssure thing Mosssssaic," Glow answered, then breathing in and exhaling fire onto the torch, which lighted it successfully.

"Glow, you accidently hit me too," Mosaic annoyingly said, coughing a bunch between words.

"Oh...ssssssorry about that," Glow remorsefully said. Despite not responding, Mosaic acknowledged him and accepted his apology.

Not to much time later, as the group continued to explore the pyramid, they eventually passed by a panel on one of the walls, which Hoops noticed.

"Hey, what's this?" Hoops said, thinking aloud.

"Oh, Hoops, what is it?" Mosaic asked, then turning back around along with the rest of the group to see what he was looking at.

"It seems to lead deeper into the pyramid from the looks of it," Beryl said.

"What makessss you sssssso ssssssure?" Glow asked. "I don't know, just a feeling," Beryl replied.

"We should try to open it," Rosy suggested.

"That's a good start," Mosaic said in agreement.

The group then proceeded to try to open it, starting with pushing it aside, but to no avail.

"Maybe there'sssss a sssswitch or sssssomething we're ssssssupposed to pressssssss," Glow hypothesized. Because of Glow's speculation, the group looked around the room a bit, but found nothing.

"I don't see a switch anywhere in here," Beryl said.

"Any other ideas?" Mosaic asked the others.

"Maybe we're supposed to break down the door," Hoops somewhat sarcastically suggested.

"Actually, let'sssss not okay?" Glow said, against Hoops' idea.

"Once again, I'm just joking," Hoops replied.

"Well I'm honestly stumped at this point," Mosaic declared.

"Me too," Hoops said.

Berry gave a me three in his language.

"Me fourth?" Beryl said, assuming Berry's words.

"And know what? Me fifth," Glow joined in.

Rosy then thought a bit, and said, "Before I say me sixth, let me take another look at the panel," Rosy said.

"Oh, go ahead Rosy," Mosaic told her.

Rosy then went over to the panel and thought to herself, "It's all i can think of at this point, but it won't hurt to check if there's one here," Rosy looked over the panel again, and found just what she was looking for towards the bottom of the panel, a keyhole. "Hey guys, take a look at what I found!" Rosy shouted to the others.

After hearing her, the others rushed over to see what she was talking about it.

"Well would you look at that, it's a keyhole!" Mosaic stated.

"I guess you could say...Rosy found the KEY to the puzzle, eh?" said Beryl.

"Good one Beryl," Glow said, acknowledging Beryl's pun.

"Back on topic, i believe that this implies that there's a key hidden somewhere in this pyramid and we'll need to use it to get the panel to slide aside so we can get through," Mosaic then explained to the group.

"Thinking about it, wouldn't it help out if we split up to look for it?" Hoops said, making a suggestion.

"That's not a bad idea," Mosaic replied in agreement. "I think the best thing to do here so that no one's alone but we're covering as much ground as possible is for us to split up into pairs," Mosaic continued.

 **VII: Scavenger Hunt**

"Beryl, you and Berry search together," Mosaic assigned. "I'll search the pyramid with Rosy," Mosaic continued. "And Hoops, you look for the key with Glow," Mosaic told Hoops. "Now, is everyone okay with this?" Mosaic then asked everyone.

"I'd say so," Beryl said giving his input.

"This works pretty well," Hoops then answered.

Berry then replied yes in his language.

"You bet!" Rosy answered.

"I don't ssssee why we wouldn't be," Glow inputted.

"Actually, I've thought of a reason why we wouldn't," Beryl said. "Mosaic, how are me and Berry supposed to see with it so dark? You're the only one with a torch," Beryl pointed out.

"I actually didn't think of that." Mosaic stated. "Glow, do you see anymore unlit torches?" Mosaic asked Glow.

"I'll look and see if I find any," Glow replied, then looking around a bit.

As he looked, Hoops made a sarcastic statement. "If we don't find another torch, maybe we could have Glow light Beryl on fire so they can see," Hoops said.

"Umm, how about no? You don't want to see me maroon right now do you?" Beryl replied.

"I didn't mean it…" Hoops nervously said.

"Ah, I found one!" Glow stated a bit muffled, coming back with an unlit torch in his mouth. "Now all I gotta do issssss light it and we're good to go!" Glow proclaimed. After lighting it, he handed it to Berry, telling him to be careful with it.

Berry nodded and quickly made his way over to Beryl.

After everyone got into their respective pairs, Mosaic said, "Alright everyone, now let's go scavenger hunting! Yeah!" Then running through a corridor in the pyramid with Rosy only to trip and fall down a flight of stairs. "I'm okay…" Mosaic then stated.

"Well, Berry, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can open the door. So let's get hunting!" Beryl said to Berry.

Berry then speaks a word in their language, though he doesn't understand him, Beryl assumed he agreed and let Berry stand on his head, and went down a different corridor from Mosaic and Rosy.

Hoops looked around for a different route to use from the two of them, and eventually noticed a chain dangling from the ceiling that seemed to lead down another path.

"So...Glow, how about we go up there?" Hoops suggested.

"Lookssss like a good place to look, sssssso i'd say we should go for it," Glow answered Hoops.

Which the two then proceed to then make their way to the chain and climb up it, Hoops with his multiple limbs, and Glow by circling his body around it to wind up it.

Meanwhile, after a bit of time had passed at this point, Berry was once again still standing on top of Beryl, holding the torch in the air to get a better view of the ruins and a lead on the key's location, unable to find anything.

"Huh, I don't see the key anywhere." Beryl stated. "Any ideas?" they then asked Berry.

Berry just shook his head.

"Also Berry, be sure that your careful with that torch, we wouldn't want me or you to get burned alright?"

Which Berry understood and was sure to remember.

After examining the room a bit more, Beryl eventually took notice of a ledge high up that seemed to lead to another part of the pyramid.

"Hey Berry, think you could do me a favor?" Beryl asked, waiting for Berry to give a response. Once Berry acknowledged him, Beryl proceeded to ask him. "You think you go to that higher up ledge over there and see if you find the key up there?" they asked. "It's too high for me to reach my self which is why I'd like you to do that if you can while I continue to look down here," Beryl continued explaining.

Berry gave a response that Beryl interpreted as him agreeing.

Which after doing so thanked him for agreeing and moved jumping distance of the ledge so Berry could reach it.

In a different part of the pyramid, Mosaic and Rosy hunted for the key, looking in each nook and cranny to see if they can track it down. As they did so, Rosy eventually brought up something important to Mosaic.

"Mosaic, I realized something," Rosy started.

"What is that Rosy?" Mosaic responded.

"The scenery of these ruins look very similar. And with how similar everything looks in here, couldn't we easily get lost in here?" Rosy explained.

"We could now that I think about it…" Mosaic answered.

"Do you have something we could use as a trail marker? Rosy asked.

"Actually, it's funny that you asked, because I actually do," Mosaic replied, then digging into his pocket and pulling out a blue marker.

"You were just keeping that on your person?" Rosy asked, surprised to see that he had it with him.

"Yeah, I keep stuff to draw or write with on me alot." Mosaic explained.

"Hey, that's really handy," Rosy replied.

"It is," Mosaic responded. "Anyway, my idea is that we write a mark on the wall and to make each one look different so that we know where we've been," Mosaic then explained.

"Why do I feel like Beryl would have used that as a chance to make a pun if he was here right now?" Rosy said. "But yeah, that's a good idea," Rosy then stated, getting back on topic.

"Alright, we'll just draw an X here," Mosaic said, then doing just as he said he would. "And there we go. Now, back to hunting!" Mosaic then said, then going down a corridor they presumed to not have explored yet.

At a corner of one of the corridors, Mosaic and Rosy took notice of the wall. It looked as if there was a large crack on it.

"Wow, look at that wall," Mosaic started. "It could let over with ease if we had something with enough force," Mosaic then said.

Rosy looked around and saw some red grass sticking out of the ground, and under this...the top of something purple and round. "Hey, we could use those bombs to see what's behind that wall," Rosy said, pointing at the bombs.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Mosaic said, then beginning to go over to the bombs.

"Wait Mosaic, i'm not sure yet," Rosy said, stopping Mosaic in his tracks.

"Oh you weren't? What's the reason?" Mosaic questioned.

"Well...i'm not sure if we should blow up because it could alarm the others," Rosy explained.

"That is sort of true, maybe we should discuss this a bit more," Mosaic realized.

As they discussed however, they hadn't realized, but a mysterious figure in the darkness had been watching them from afar. They ran off after a bit for some unknown reason.

"So basically, I don't believe blowing up the bombs will be a problem since we can just tell them later on what the explosion was if they ask," Mosaic explained to Rosy.

"I suppose we can do that," She responded.

"Alright, now let's blast this barricade!" Mosaic stated, then, along with Rosy, preparing some bombs to hurl at the wall.

Meanwhile, Hoops and Glow searched for the key, with Glow leading the way thanks to his night vision.

As they continued to search, Hoops asked a question. "So Glow, i have a question, how does your vision look when your seeing in the dark?".

"Oh, why do you assssssk?" Glow replied.

"Just wanted to check that it's more reliable than using a torch," Hoops explained.

Glow then started to explain. "Well bassssically, the way that I sssssee isssss-", however as he was talking, mid sentence, they suddenly heard a loud explosion come from elsewhere in the pyramid.

"What was that?" Hoops stated.

"It sssssssounds like it wassssss an explosssssio,." Glow replied, then continuing, "But I don't think we ssssshould worry about it sssssince it ssssssounded like it came from sssssomewhere-"

"No! But we should. Considering how that explosion sounded, it could very well cause the pyramid to cave in and we'll all be trapped in here! Or worse…" Hoops said loudly, to signify he was being serious.

"Wow Hoopsssss, you're right, I guessssss we ssssshould proceed with caution from here on out," Glow responded.

After the two explored the pyramid for a while longer, they eventually came across a large golden brown double door on one of the walls, with a torch on either side.

"Hey, it's one of those large doors," Hoops said.

"Hey, I've ssssseen doorsssss like thissssss too, I feel like thisssss isssss a good ssssign that we're getting warmer on the key'ssssss location," Glow added.

"To be honest, I agree, we should check this room out," Hoops responded. Agreeing that it's a good lead on the key's location, the two entered through the doors of the room.

And right they were, across the room they indeed saw a shiny gold object, this object being the key they were looking for.

"Hey, there's the key!" Hoops exclaimed.

Glow thought it was great that they found the key as well, however noticed a worrying detail. He noticed several masks on the wall, each of them looked the same. They were round, dual-golden colored and had a creepy smile of sorts on their faces. These were phantos. Glow doesn't mention it to Hoops as he presumed that he remembered as they went over to the key altar.

"Well, you've caused us enough trouble, but it ends now!" Hoops said to the key, about to snatch it negligently off the altar, when Glow stopped him.

"Hoopssssss, we really sssshouldn't jusssssst ssssnatch the key off," Glow told him.

"Why not?" Hoops asked, a bit annoyed.

"We've been in pyramidsssssss like thissssss before, and you realize keyssss like thissss are alwayssss guarded by phantossss right?" Glow explained.

"I'm sorry but umm, what are phantos again?" Hoops asked.

"Bassssssically, throughout ssssubcon, unlike the musssshroom kingdom, keysssss are commonly guarded by phantossssss, and if we removed the key, they'll go after ussssss," Glow answered.

"So they're basically key guardians?" Hoops asked.

"I guesssss you could ssssay that," Glow replied.

"Well, if they bother us, we can just beat up them," Hoops said, snatching the key off the altar.

"Wait, Hoopssss! It'sssss not that sssssimple!" Glow said in an attempt to stop him, however, it being too late at this point, one of the phantos' eyes glowed red and then removed themself from the wall and looked at Glow and Hoops. "Run!" Glow said, then rushing quickly out of the room along with Hoops, holding the key overhead.

"Umm, don't you mean slide since umm...you don't have any legs?" Hoops said as they fled.

"You know what I mean!" Glow responded as they continued.

Meanwhile, Mosaic and Rosy had gotten back out of the wall they just blew up.

"It's funny that we found an ice flower back there isn't?" Rosy stated.

"It is kinda funny," Mosaic replied. "But it'll really help us out if we run into any 8-bits in here," Mosaic pointed out.

"Considering we still haven't found the key yet, do you think we should retrace our steps so that we can regroup?" Rosy then asked.

"To be honest, I was thinking the same thing," Mosaic replied.

Mosaic and Rosy after retracing their steps a bit, noticed Beryl and Berry. The latter just as they were looking to get on the former's head so that they could get down.

"So, did you find anything?" Beryl asked them.

Which Berry responded in their language to have not and only finding a dead end.

"Based on the look on your face, I'm guessing you didn't?" Beryl then asked, in which Berry nodded. "Hey, that's fine, maybe the others found it," Beryl said to help Berry not feel so bad.

"Hey Beryl! Did you guys find the key?" Mosaic yelled and asked.

"Wow, that's what I was going to ask you guys," Beryl replied.

"Wait, so you guys didn't either?" Mosaic asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Beryl replied.

"Oof, that leaves Hoops and Glow then," Mosaic responded.

"Yeah, it would be good to find the two of them as maybe they found the-" Rosy said, only to be interrupted.

Hoops and Glow suddenly came rushing into the room they were in, out of breath.

"Or...they'll find us?" Rosy said.

"Glow! Hoops! It's surprising you two are here but, why are you hyperventilating?" Beryl asked. "Just because this place has no air vents doesn't mean you need to...hyperventilate," Beryl said, making another pun.

"Also Glow, did you and Hoops by any chance find a key?" Mosaic asked the two.

"Firssssst off, yesssss we found a key," Glow answered Mosaic.

"Really? That's great-" Mosaic began to say.

"Sssssecond off, i'm not hyperventilating, the reassssssson i'm panting sssssso hard issssss that when me and Hoopssssss got the key, a phanto ssssstarted chasssssing ussssss," Glow continued explaining. "And we need to find where the key sssssslot wassssss quickly sssssso we can get rid of the Phanto!" Glow continued to inform.

"But how would we-" Rosy was about to question.

"I don't have the time to explain, we need to flee them!" Glow interruptingly explained, then going the direction he believed the key hole was and signaled everyone followed his lead, which they do.

After running a bit, Glow threw the key out his mouth. "Mossssssaic! Catch!" Glow shouted.

Mosaic managed to catch it successfully but then asked, "Wait, why do i have it?"

"Bassssically, the Phanto only chasssesssss whoever'ssssss holding the key, sssssssso by usssss passssssing it around like we are, it'll help usssss to hold onto it," Glow frantically explained.

"That's actually a good idea," Mosaic replied. "In that case, Berry! Catch the key!"

Tossing the key over to the baby dino, whom caught it with his tongue and held it in his mouth after having held it for a bit, he then spat it out to Hoops, whom caught it with ease. The group continued to outwit the Phanto with this strategy until they eventually found their way to the keyhole and inserted the key inside, which caused the panel to slide right over and open the way to the room, which the group then proceeded to quickly rush inside. After doing so, the Phanto seemed to have mysteriously vanished.

Upon their realization that the Phanto was no longer chasing them, the group took a moment to catch their breath. "Phew, it'ssssss a good thing you guyssss followed my directionssssss and asssked quessssstions later, otherwisssssse that wouldn't have turned out ssssso good," Glow said.

"So, you're going to explain to us why you hustled us without explanation and knew that the Phanto would disappear?" Hoops asked.

"Yeah, sssssso bassssically, i've heard rumorssss that for ssssome odd reassson, phantossssss ssssseem to disssssappear when you insert a key their guarding into a door." Glow educated the group.

"Does anyone know where they go after they vanish?" Rosy asked.

"That's something to wonder; and along with that, why do they vanish?" Mosaic then added.

"To be honessssst, no one's really sssssure why either of thosssse thingsssssss happen, but it'sssss definitely sssssomething to wonder," Glow answered, responding to both of them.

The Mosaic group found this interesting, but Beryl seemed to have his attention elsewhere.

"Guys...you might want to pipe down a bit," Beryl said quietly.

"Wait a minute, why is-" Mosaic started to ask.

"Ssssh!" Beryl said. "If you want to know why, why don't you guys come take a look?" Beryl suggested to the others.

The rest of the group came to take a look at what Beryl was looking at, and see a mysterious figure in the darkness, that unbeknownst to them, was the same one spying on Mosaic and Rosy earlier, they saw that the figure was a tweeter. And they were talking to someone much bigger than them. This someone was limbless and scaly, like cobrats generally were. Except that they had other notable features. They were blue scaled and had an underside shaded tan. Their more notably biology came from however from the fact that they had not one, not two, but three different heads. The group recognized the creature as Tryclyde.

"Sir, it seems like we're not alone in this pyramid," The tweeter began to explain to Tryclyde.

"Oh? Isssss that sssso?" Tryclyde replied.

"I was looking around earlier, and saw two individuals here, that i'm pretty certain aren't supposed to be here."

As the group spied on this conversation, Berry seemed to display fearfulness and cuddled next to Rosy for comfort.

"You're scared of him huh?" Rosy asked.

In which Berry responded in his language that he is.

"Well it's okay, you have nothing to worry about, not with me here," Rosy encouraged Berry. Rosy then noticed something about Hoops. She noticed he seemed to be shivering. "Hoops, you seem to be shivering for some reason," Rosy mentioned.

"I'm not shivering! You're shivering!" Hoops replied defensively.

"No need to hide it Hoops, your scared of Tryclyde as well, you and I both know that." Rosy replied, knowing he's trying to deny his true feelings.

"I hate it when Rosy's right…" Hoops said to himself quietly. Sighing, Hoops then said "Y-You're right, i am s-sorta scared of them," Hoops admitted.

"Well, did you need a bit of comfort?" Rosy offered.

"Naw, i'll get comfort from Mosaic thank you," Hoops replied, shooting down his offer, then skittering over to Mosaic and climbing up to his shoulder for safety.

"Anyway, we should discuss what we're going to do about them," Mosaic said.

"Well, our main objective here isssss mainly to get them out of the way, so…" Glow started, before being interrupted by Beryl.

"Guys! We really need to stop being this loud, because…"

"What wasssss that?" Tryclyde said, hearing the noise, then looking around suspiciously along with the tweeter.

At this point, the group had realized the noise they were making and had hidden behind a wall and tried to be as silent as they could.

"Ehh, it wassssss probably nothing," Tryclyde said. "The ssssliding panel isssss locked, sssso whoever thosssse guyssss you ssssssaw in here were probably couldn't get in," Tryclyde then mentioned.

Just as their about to go back about their business and forget about the noise, Berry couldn't hold it in and let out a sneeze, alarming them.

"Ahaa! Ssssso there issssss sssssomeone here," Tryclyde said. "Why don't you guysssss come out and ssshow yoursssselvessss? We know you're there," Tryclyde then continued.

Realizing there was no point in doing otherwise, the group came out of their hiding. "Wait a minute…" Tryclyde stated. "I know who you are, you're the Mosssssaic Group." Tryclyde continued, sounding mad. "And with you are a pokey, and…" Tryclyde continued, seeming to then pause mid sentence and give Glow a peculiar look.

They don't pause for too long however as they then continue, "And a cobrat with you as well."

"Hey, we have names you know, i'm Beryl and this is Glow," Beryl said.

"Oh...hey, but umm, why are we introducing ourssssselvesssss?" Glow asked Beryl.

"Not actually too sure to be honest," Beryl responded.

 **VIII: Brawl Beneath**

"Well alright then, Beryl and...Glow," Tryclyde continued. "We don't need you two and the Mosssaic Group meddling in our affairsssss," Tryclyde continued. "Now spy," Tryclyde said to the tweeter.

"Yes sir?" The tweeter asked.

"Let'ssss have backup help usssss out with dissssposing of thessse meddlers," Tryclyde told them.

"Right…" The Tweeter replied.

"Back up?" Hoops stated.

"And what would this backup be?" Mosaic then asked.

"Thisssss back up right here," Tryclyde said, pointing to another part of the room, where they see a pair of cobrats; one red and one blue; and a pair of snifits also one red and one blue.

"So it looks like we are fighting…" Hoops said.

"Now, 8-bitsssss, attack!" Tryclyde ordered, in which the 8-bits obey and run in the group's direction.

With quick thinking, Mosaic quickly told each of the group who to deal with. "Beryl and Berry! You guys deal with the snifits!" "Hoops! Rosy! You guys deal with the cobrats!" "I'll deal with the tweeter, and Glow, you deal with Tryclyde,"

"Umm Mossssaic, think you can sssswitch that around?" Glow asked.

Mosaic is puzzled at Glow asking this, but doesn't mind. "I guess we can do that," Mosaic anwsered.

"Thanksssss," Glow responded.

Mosaic is also confused by this statement as well, but realized there's no time to think about it and needed to deal with Tryclyde, who shoots some fireballs his way but he quickly dodged and prepared to counter with a ice fused punch.

Hoops and Rosy, despite the former's issues, worked together to outwit the cobrats. As they dodged the two cobrat's attempts to lunge at them, Rosy took this as a chance to ram into the red one with her spin technique, knocking them down momentarily, but them quickly recovering.

Hoops on the other hand decided on trying to confuse the blue one with their speed by running rapid circles around them, giving them a hard time keeping up, allowing Hoops to tackle them, flooring them for a short bit. While they were lying on the ground, Hoops took this as a chance to lift them up from the center of their body, twirl them around and hurl them at the red one once again knocking them and the blue one down just as they got up. With difficulty, the blue one recovered and shot Hoops with a fireball, which hit and knocked him on the ground. The cobrat then prepared another fireball, intending to inflict further harm, however before their fireball could hit Hoops, Rosy intercepted the fireball by hurling an ice ball at it, which froze the fireball solid. This allowed Hoops to make a recovery, then tossing the ice block back at the cobrat, knocking them down once more.

Berry and Beryl on the other hand were having a bit of difficulty with the snifits, multiple times, they only barely avoided the bullets they fired at them, and didn't have too many chances to fight back, in which Berry realized they needed to find something to use. Berry noticed after checking the room a bit that there were mushroom blocks present. After dodging a few more bullets, Berry lifted one of the mushroom blocks above his head with difficulty, due to him being one of the weakest in the group, and strenuously hurled it at the blue snifit, knocking them down.

Beryl on the other hand was trying to get into close range of the snifit so that they could headbutt them, but found that it was too risky. So instead, he spun his body rapidly and fired his thorns at the snifit, these thorns however flew all over the room, hitting not just the snifit, but the two cobrats and tweeter as well.

The tweeter had been contending with Glow, clearly having the short end of the stick in part mainly due to both Glow's superior size as well as firepower, it seemed to be a rather one sided fight for the most part, especially with them having now been pinned by several of Beryl's thorns.

"Sir, a little help?" The tweeter asked Tryclyde.

Tryclyde was busy fighting Mosaic, he earlier had dodged his ice infused punch, and their fight had generally been a war of attrition, anytime Tryclyde tried to hit Mosaic with fireballs, Mosaic would block them with ice balls, causing them to either freeze or disintegrate simultaneously with the ice balls.

"I'm not helping you right now, we're busssssy dealing with Mosssaic," Tryclyde told the tweeter. "Asssssk for asssssssistance from one of the othersssss," Tryclyde then proceeded to say afterwards.

The tweeter dodged a stream of fire from Glow and then looked upon the battle going on and realized; They were definitely losing here. The two cobrats had both been beaten down enough to the point that Hoops and Rosy were now helping out Beryl, Berry, and Mosaic with Tryclyde and the two snifits. And they then came to a realization at that point and told Tryclyde about it.

"Sir! We're wasting our time dealing with these nuisances! We already got what we're looking for!" The Tweeter shouted to Tryclyde.

"Hmm...thinking about it you make a good point," Tryclyde responded to them. "Throw the magic potion with you at the wall," Tryclyde then ordered.

After being told to do so, the tweeter pulled out a flask filled with an odd purple liquid, and hurled it at the wall, shattering the flask. Upon them doing this, a purple door, lined with a golden frame appeared. The Mosaic group along with Glow and Beryl stopped their fighting when they noticed this.

"8-bitsssss! Change of plansssss! Through the magic door!" Tryclyde said, then hustling over to the door, in which the cobrats, despite being beaten, the snifits, and tweeter followed.

"They're escaping! After them!" Hoops said, trying to chase after them with the rest of the group.

Before they could reach the door however, it was sealed shut and vanished.

"There they go..." Glow said.

"But hey we need to remember, with them gone, we can search this room now without a problem!" Beryl stated, turning a green shade before reverting brown again.

 **IX: Unboxing**

The Mosaic group, Glow and Beryl began to examine the room to see if they could find anything that's worthwhile within the room. After looking a while however, finding nothing.

"There's nothing in here from what i'm seeing," Mosaic stated.

"Yeah, unfortunately it looks like we're going to leave empty-handed," Rosy added.

Hoops then began to add his own feelings on it too. "Well this was a big waste of time, we come all this way, do all of this waiting for something interesting, and what do we end up with? Absolutely-" "Oow!" Hoops then said, booping his head against something. "What the heck did I just hit my head against?" Hoops said. The rest of the group made their way over to where Hoops booped his head.

Mosaic realized that the object that he hit his head on was shaped like a box, and along with that, had alot of dust all over it.

"This thing...it's a chest," Mosaic informed the group.

"A really dusssssty one too," Glow added.

"This thing looks as if it hadn't been touched for years," Beryl inputted, giving his opinion.

"I guess Tryclyde and the others missed it when they were looking around this room," Mosaic hypothesized.

"Well, I'm personally curious as to what could be inside, I say that we open it," Hoops suggested.

"Are you sure about that Hoops?" Beryl asked, sounding a bit worried.

"What's the problem with opening it?" Hoops questioned.

"W...Well it's…" Beryl started, his body starting to become a shade of yellow. "I've heard myths about ancient treasures, one of those is that ancient treasure chests like this could have some evil spirit it in, and if it's true...we'll end up doing something like that!" Beryl explained.

Everyone is silent for a bit after hearing him say this, but eventually Glow spoke up.

"Beryl, that'sssss jussssst a myth though, I doubt there'ssss actually ssssssomething ssssealed insssside of here. I'm personally in favor of opening it," he explained to Beryl.

"I...I suppose your right," Beryl replied, starting to calm down a bit and revert to his normal brown color. "I suppose you guys can open it, being that it's sorta hard for me to help out," Beryl said.

"Alright, so me, Glow and Beryl say yes we open it, Mosaic, Berry, and Rosy. What do you guys say we do?" Hoops then continued.

Berry told Hoops something in his language.

"Your not sure if we should because of Beryl's superstition?" Hoops asked.

Which Berry responds is the reason.

"Berry, Glow just explained that that's a myth, other than that, is there any reason you wouldn't be in favor of opening it?" Hoops then asked.

Berry thought about it and then gave another answer in his language.

"Oh? So you would be otherwise?" Hoops replied.

"Well that makes four of us. What do you think we should do Mosaic and Rosy?" Hoops then asked.

"The only issue I really have is that the chest may be really dirty, but I guess I'll let it slide..." Rosy said.

"Now that leaves Mosaic. What do you think?" Hoops asked him.

"Well, considering all you guys want to open it, I don't see why not," Mosaic answered Hoops.

"Well in that case-" Hoops stated, trying to push over the lid to open it, but finding he had a hard time. "Umm, could I get some help please?" Hoops asked.

"Sure thing Hoops," accepted Mosaic. "Berry, Rosy, Glow let's help him out," Mosaic then told the others.

The five of them working together, they all strenuously pushed on it to get the lid off.

"Something kinda funny about you putting this much effort in, is that it gives you a chance to get your anger out," Beryl started to say. "A chance to...get things off your chest?" Beryl said, cracking another pun. "You get it-" Beryl started.

"Beryl sorry, but we're...sorta trying...to get this moved, we don't have time to hear it," Rosy explained to Beryl.

"Oh, sorry about that," Beryl said.

"Ugh, this isn't working," Hoops mentioned. "Everyone stop a sec," Hoops told the group. "Alright, on the count of three, all of us should give the chest lid a big shove, got it?" Hoops asked.

"Got it," the group replied.

"Alright, on the count of three. One...two...three...SHOVE!" Hoops yelled, in which everyone shoved at the same time, finally removing the lid from the chest. "Woo! Great job everyone!" Hoops said to the group. "Now, to look and see what we found," Hoops said.

Everyone got in a circle around the chest and peered inside to see what they uncovered. Inside they had found...a round frame for something, the only thing inside this frame being a needle pointing south and several odd markings on it, that not much could be inducted from.

"Huh, so this is all that's in here?" Mosaic said, holding the frame in his hand and looking at it.

"Apparently so…" Rosy said.

"It's weird that this thing was sealed away like this," Hoops stated.

 **X: Closure**

Sometime later on, at this point the Mosaic Group, along with Glow and Beryl had made it out of the pyramid and had made their way back to Desert Land so that they could focus better.

"Ssssssso, isssss it a deal?" Glow asked Mosaic, as they had had a conversation about how to do things. "You guysss are going to sssssshow thissssss sssssstrange object you found to Team Sssssss.M.B.X to ssssssee what they have to ssssay about it while we ssssssspread the word on thissssss ancient pyramid that we found in the ravine?" Glow asked, wanting to check with him one last time.

"That's the plan here," Mosaic answered.

"Well, it wasssss cool hanging out with you and your friendssss Mossssaic, I hope to sssssssssssee you sssssome othertime!" Glow then said, giving Mosaic and his friends a proper goodbye as he left with Beryl.

"Yeah, see ya another time Mosaic Group! Just try to not...hang us out to dry if you know what i'm saying!" Beryl said, giving one last pun.

"Yeah, we'll try not to do that. It was nice exploring with you guys too. See you another time," Mosaic said. And as he, Hoops, Rosy and Berry made their way to the pipe back to Mushroom Plains, Hoops, Rosy, and even Berry each waved to them.

 _ **"And so with that, another quest came to an end for the Mosaic Group as they made their way back home to discuss with Team S.M.B.X what they found. What could this strange object mean? How would Team S.M.B.X feel about their discovery of this artifact? Where would their adventures lead them next? Find out next time on Mosaic Adventures!"**_

 _ **Next Time...Chapter 4: Mistakes Happen**_


	4. Chapter 4

**I: Artifact Speculation**

 _ **"After arriving back home from their pyramid expedition, the Mosaic group had notified Team SMBX on what they found and asked them to meet as soon as they could, which they did so the next day, Team S.M.B.X gathered inside of the Mosaic Group's house so that the bunch of them could have a discussion on the object they found."**_

"Hmm...so for starters, where-a did you guys find-a this object?" Mario asked the Mosaic Group, pacing about the room with the object in his hand, gazing at it as he asked.

"We found it deep inside of a pyramid with Glow and Beryl, inside of some old, dusty chest," Mosaic informed.

"Huh...that's interesting," Mario replied.

"So, was this all you guys found, or was there something else you had to show us?" Link asked.

"Oddly enough, nothing," Rosy explained. "Trust me...we looked, but this is all that we found," Rosy continued.

"Not to mention, it was just when we were about to leave empty handed too," Hoops added.

"That's-a rather peculiar," Mario commented.

Berry then added something in his language.

"What's that Berry?" Hoops asked Berry.

Berry then repeated himself.

"Oh yeah, Berry remembered that while us, Beryl and Glow were there, in that room, we ran into some 8-bits...and Tryclyde," Hoops translated for the others.

"You did?" Toad asked.

"Yep, and apparently they found something in there and took it before we got there, and escaped before we could figure out what it was," Hoops explained.

"I wonder what they had found…" Peach commented.

"Well...whatever it was, I hope it was-a nothing important," Luigi added.

"Well, on a different-a note, I wanted to check one more-a time," Mario began. "Do you-a guys have any idea on what this artifact is or where it's-a from?" Mario asked the group.

"Well, we clearly didn't, otherwise we wouldn't have meet and talked about this," Mosaic answered.

"Nope," Toad answered.

"Not a clue," Link inputted.

Luigi shook his head in response.

"Not really," Peach responded.

"As I-a expected, looks like it'll be a good idea that we ask-a 'him'," Mario then told the group.

"Him?" Link asked Mario.

"Yeah, 'him'," Mario answered. "Bring some-a travel stuff along guys, we're-a going on a trip," Mario explained.

"Oh? Again?" Hoops said. "Where are we going?" he then asked.

Mario then walked over to the door and opened it.

"Follow my-a lead to find out," Mario said as he walked away.

The others shrugged at him suddenly doing this, but decided not to question it and instead to just follow his lead and see where he took them.

 **II: I'm a Professional!**

A bit of time later, and the nine all ended up in a dark forest called The Stumping Woods. As far as could be seen the woods were plastered with trees, darkness and a grassy forest floor with several purple flowers and occasional ? and brick blocks here and there. Despite the forest not feeling like the safest environment, the group continued following Mario's lead through the forest to see who the "Him" he was talking about was.

"So this person lives in this dank place?" Hoops asked.

"Mhmm," Mario replied.

"I never liked this-a forest, I hope we get there-a quick," Luigi retorted.

"Relax Luigi, we'll be there soon," Toad mentioned.

"hopefully this is worth the effort, considering we needed to take a warp pipe all the way at the colorful hills to get here." Peach stated.

"Being honest, I may come back here alone someday, this is actually my first time being here myself," Link mentioned.

"Interesting, this is our first time coming to this forest too," Mosaic stated.

"I'm sure you-a guys have a lot of comments about this place, however, let's-a save those for later, we're on a business trip right now," Mario said.

Berry questioned what Mario meant by this, Hoops, understanding this responded.

"He basically means we have an objective we're trying to fulfill," Hoops replied.

Berry understood, and the group kept moving.

Eventually the group made it to a large clearing, where they see a large building. The walls were dark gray, the roofing was dark blue, and the door brown, with pairs of windows on either side of what appeared to be a laboratory of sorts.

"So...is this the building that the guy lives it?" Hoops asked.

"Well, it's not that he lives-a here. It is his secret laboratory after all. It's more that he has to stay here for awhile while his other place is under renovation. Either way though, hopefully he's in right now," Mario explained.

Just before Mario knocked, Mosaic asked a question.

"Secret laboratory? Who's in it exactly?" he asked.

"Oh-a yeah, you, the rest of your group, and Link haven't met him yet. His name is Prof. E Gadd,"

"Prof. E Gadd huh?" Mosaic commented. "Interesting name, wonder what he's like," he continued.

"Same..." Link replied.

"Well, what do you-a guys say we-a find out?" Mario asked, then knocking on the door, and waiting for an answer.

"Oh! Hello there! Come on in, the doors' open!" a voice inside said.

"Hey, that must mean he's-a in!" Mario said, then opening the door, signaling the others to follow him.

When the group enters the lab, they see someone in the room, this someone looked rather short, wore a white lab coat, had a rounded, bald head minus the swirl of white hair sticking up, and had swirly glasses with a light blue tint on his eyes. This was the person Mario had been referring to, Prof. E Gadd to be exact.

"Mario! What brings you and your other friends here?" Prof. E Gadd questioned, then noticing Link and the Mosaic Group. "And hullabaloo! Who are these fellows with you?" E. Gadd then questioned.

"Oh, they're umm…" Mario started to say. "Actually, how about you-a guys introduce yourselves?" Mario then asked.

"Sure thing, I'll start," Link said, sticking out his hand to give him a handshake. "My name is Link. i'm the newest member of Team S.M.B.X," Link stated.

Rosy then went next. "I'm Rosy! Nice to meet you E. Gadd!" Then shook hands.

Berry introduced himself in his language, which Rosy translated for E. Gadd.

"Oh yeah, his name is Berry," Rosy said.

Hoops then took this as a chance for his turn. "I'm Hoops! You can call me the quickest in the group!" Hoops boasted, then skittering around a bit to show off his agility.

Finally, Mosaic introduced himself. "And I'm Mosaic, I'm the leader of, as we call it, the Mosaic Group," He said, then shaking hands with Prof. E. Gadd.

"I'm Prof. E. Gadd, an inventor who likes to study ghosts, heh," E. Gadd introduced.

"Anyway, nice to meet all you youngsters," Prof. E. Gadd then said.

"Youngsters?" Link said under his breath.

Berry said, "G...Ghosts?" nervously in his language.

"What was it Berry?" E. Gadd questioned.

"Oh, it's just that Berry heard you talking about ghosts when introducing yourself," Rosy explained.

"Heh, so I guess Mario's brother isn't the only one scared of ghosts huh?" Prof. E. Gadd replied, in which Luigi reacted sorta nervously to him saying.

"Would seem so…" Hoops said. "But uh, how did you know that?" Hoops then asked.

"Me and Luigi, we go a while back, heh," Prof E. Gadd responded.

"Oh you guys do?" Mosaic asked Luigi, looking his direction.

"Uh, yeah...it related to this a mansion I won one time, but...i don't-a like to talk about it." Luigi responded nervously.

"I believe he one time let us use his garage for one of our parties too," Peach mentioned.

"Party in a garage?" Hoops asked in shock.

"Oh yeah, it was a lot bigger than your probably imaging," Peach responded.

"Anyway, we've-a chatted enough, I wanted to get to another-a subject," Mario intervened. "So basically E. Gadd, we-a wanted to show you this strange thing we-a found, or more specifically, the-a Mosaic Group found in some old pyramid," Mario then explained, showing him the artifact and handing him it.

Prof. E. Gadd took a look at the object and then gave an answer. "Hmm, I may be able to study this thing's origin," Prof. E. Gadd answered. "However, I'll need a few days to look into it, I'll notify you guys in a few days about any information I find on it," He then explained.

"Honestly, I can live with that, take all the time you need professor," Mosaic replied.

"Agreed," Rosy then said.

"Eh...guess we can wait," Hoops stated.

The others then gave their opinions as well, all saying that it can work in some form.

The group then all give E. Gadd their respective goodbyes as they made their way out of the laboratory and back the way they came to make their way home and enter the warp pipe they took to get there. When they got to the park, the Mosaic Group and Team S.M.B.X wanted to discuss a bit before they went their separate ways.

"You know, at this point I'd prefer to just call a day considering what we've done the last couple days," Mosaic began.

"I agree," Hoops said in response.

"That's not a bad idea," Peach replied.

"Know-a what? I can get behind the idea of-a that," Mario inputted. "Presuming there are no attacks from Bowser or another-a one of those troublemakers out there," Mario then continued.

"I like the sound of-a that...not worrying about anything for a-a bit," Luigi said.

"Not much to say that hasn't been said…" Link stated.

Rosy and Toad then gave agreement as well.

"Well with that, it's time we went about our own business, bye you guys!" Mosaic said, waving as he left with the rest of the Mosaic Group.

"See you next time!" Mario responded, as he left along with Team S.M.B.X.

 **III: No Worries...Right?**

"Mistakes happen, we all make them, regardless of what they are, most wind up a hindrance in one way or another. While some are only a minor hindrance, others have more unthankful outcomes. Today, we see someone make one of those exact kinds of mistakes."

Faraway, in the deep, dark galaxy, a large ship of sorts existed. This ship had many different places on it, too numerous to truly count them. It was fueled up a special source of energy, star power. This place was known as the Comet Observatory.

This observatory was home to several different beings, most of them, rather numerous as well, being small star-like creatures that beared a raindrop shape and came in many different colors such as yellow, red, etc. These beings were known as Lumas.

The one who ruled over them came to the main deck. Her name was Rosalina.

"Mama! How are you today?" One of the Lumas asked.

"I'm doing fine," Rosalina replied to them.

After greeting the other Lumas, Rosalina then began talking to herself about other matters.

"I wonder...how's the mushroom kingdom been?" Rosalina had begun to think to herself. "How has Mario and his special one been?" she continued. "Maybe I should check on them on this digital machine their friend had built for me recently," Rosalina then thought. She then decided to head over to the machine she was referring to.

"Let's see, we'll check on what's been happening the last couple days," Rosalina said, then scrolling through several of the screens, then coming across a peculiar one, reading:

"The King of Koopas Strikes Again!

Just this morning, an air fleet, presumably piloted by the evil King Koopa, or Bowser, opened fire on Vibrant Park and attacked civilians, then continued onward through Colorful Hills and Fluffy Heights, eventually making it's way to Grassland. If it hadn't been for the efforts of nine heroes, their names, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Link, Mosaic, Hoops, Rosy, and Berry, who knows what casthropic results would have taken place next?

\- Reported, The Mushroom Kingdom Press"

"He's still causing trouble even after all he's already done?" Rosalina stated in distastefulness. "I think I know what an appropriate course of action here is," Rosalina said, then making her way to the library room on the comet observatory and over to a desk with paper and pen, then picking up the pen so that she could write the letter to Bowser, which was written out as follows:

"Hello sir, there's no need for me to say your name since you already know who you are, but I'll keep what I have to say short and simple. After the actions you committed the other day. I never want to see a person of...let's just say your color, green, red and yellow ever again. Simply put, your actions have disgusted me beyond words, so it would do us both a favor if you never showed your face to me again."

\- Signed, Rosalina

After she had finished writing the letter, she had remembered something else as well.

"I wanted to send a letter to Mosaic as well, didn't I?" Rosalina said to herself. "I should get to doing that as well," She then thought.

After writing Mosaic's letter, Rosalina got two envelopes to put the letters in, writing the addresses on both.

"Alright, now to just put on the area stamps and-" Rosalina began to say as she reached for them where she normally kept them, noticing they weren't there. "Oh dear, it seems I left them somewhere else on the ship, I should go look for them," Rosalina said to herself. Just as she was about to leave, a red Luma came flying into the room.

"Mama! What are you doing?" the Luma asked.

"Oh! Hey there Luma," Rosalina said, patting the Luma in her arms. "I was just writing a couple of letters, but hadn't realized that I forgot the stamp for the postage areas," Rosalina continued. "While I'm looking for those, do you think you can put the letters in the envelope for me?" Rosalina then asked.

"Sure mama!" The Luma replied.

"Thanks," Rosalina responded, then letting go of the Luma to let them go about doing so.

The Luma went over to the table to go about putting the letters in the envelopes. And they had seen that each of the two letters were both next to an envelope right above them, which they presumed were the appropriate envelopes for the two letters, so they put the two letters in the respective ones.

"Greetings Luma. I've returned," Rosalina said as she entered the room. "Unfortunately, I just ran out of stamps for delivering to dark land, and only have the ones for delivering to Mushroom Plains," Rosalina explained. "So while I'll be able to send Mosaic his letter now, Bowser's will need to wait until further notice, probably tomorrow," Rosalina added.

Rosalina then stamped the one with Mosaic's address it, not checking which letter was in it.

"Here Luma, now can you take this letter to one of those places they call a...post office? So that this can be delivered?" Rosalina asked the Luma.

"I will mama!" The luma replied, flying off with the letter, in which Rosalina waved.

 ** _The Next Day..._**

 **IV: Heartbreak**

At the Mosaic Group's house, the Mosaic group had all been downstairs and Rosy and Berry were both about to leave out of the front door.

"See you two later! Have fun at the carnival!" Mosaic said, waving to the two of them.

"Bye!" Rosy said, with Berry waving.

As the two were about to leave Mosaic wanted to mention a couple more things so he got their attention again so he could tell them.

"Oh, what was it Mosaic?" Rosy asked.

"Also i'd like the two of you to stick together, mainly due to your guys' age," Mosaic explained to them. "If you run into any of Team S.M.B.X there, i'd say stay with them," Mosaic continued, then opening the door for them.

"We'll try to remember to do that," Rosy replied. "Bye now!" She then said, as she left with Berry, for real this time around.

After the two had left and were out the door, Hoops began to talk with Mosaic.

"So the two of us are staying here while they head to the carnival, correct?" Hoops reasserted with Mosaic.

"Yeah, I figured this would work out since today isn't the only day that the carnival is going to be up, so we probably can go on another day," Mosaic explained.

"So we're basically just going to kick back here today?" Hoops asked.

"That's the plan. I, and I'm fairly certain, you have been pretty exhausted after what we've dealt with the last few days, so I feel that we'd need at least one to do that," Mosaic answered. "So, what ideas did you have Hoops?" Mosaic then asked.

"Well one of the things I was thinking was that we could play something like Go Fish or Solo," Hoops thought of.

"Don't think I'd want to play that," Mosaic replied.

"Hmm, maybe we could order pizza?" Hoops then suggested as well.

"Maybe we could," Mosaic inputted. "Or we could also play video games," Mosaic then put out as well.

"Hey...thinking about it...why not both pizza AND video games?" Hoops then suggested.

"Now your talking, let's do that!" Mosaic agreed, then along with Hoops made his way over to the TV, but noticed the game console was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, I must have left it upstairs at some point," Hoops mentioned. "I'll go upstairs to find it," Hoops then stated.

"While your doing that, I'll order the pizza." Mosaic said.

After Hoops made his way up the stairs to their room, Mosaic went over to the phone and began to dial in a number, however, as he dialed it he heard a peculiar noise, which seemed to be the sound of the mailbox.

"Mail call!" The mail carrier shouted before leaving.

"Maybe before ordering the pizza, I should check the mail," Mosaic thought to himself, putting down the phone and making his way out the door and to the mailbox, taking the letters out and heading back inside.

"Alright, now let's see what's arrived today," Mosaic said to himself, then starting to look over the letters.

"Bills...Junk mail, more bills, more junk mail…" Mosaic said to himself as he skimmed through the letters, until he noticed a light blue envelope at the bottom of the pile. "Hey, it's a letter addressed to this house…" Mosaic realized. "And based on the handwriting of the address, it's from...Rosalina?" Mosaic continued, then proceeding to tear the envelope open, eager to see what's inside. "Hey...it's a letter...what does it say?" Mosaic then continued.

Mosaic read over the letter to himself...and his eager expression slowly transitioned to a heartbroken one as he read what it said…

Meanwhile, back at the Comet Observatory, Rosalina was now going to deliver her letter to Bowser, having had now gotten the appropriate stamp. "One last thing I need to check," Rosalina said as she talked to herself. "Let's look over that letter again to be sure I said everything I wanted to," Rosalina continued, opening the envelope to look over the letter again.

However, when she took the letter out of the envelope and began looking over it, it seemed rather...positive and forgiving.

"Wait a second...why is this letter so...positive?" Rosalina began to wonder. Upon closer analysis of the letter, she realized the reason for this. "Wait a minute...isn't this the letter that I meant to send to Mosaic?" she realized.

"Mama! Is something wrong?" a red Luma came by and asked, being the same red Luma who put the letters in the envelopes for her the other day.

"Umm, Luma, do you remember how I asked you to put those letters in the envelopes for me yesterday?" Rosalina asked the Luma.

"Yeah Mama, I do…" The Luma replied, sounding a bit puzzled.

"Did you check what each of the envelopes said when I asked you to put the letters in before inserting them?" Rosalina asked them.

"Um, Mama, I'm sorry, but, I sorta put the letters into the envelopes in a hurry so I didn't really get the chance to look at what they said...I'm sorry about that," the Luma explained remorsefully.

Rosalina sighed, and then said, "Try not to do it again, if I hadn't checked this envelope, Bowser would have gotten Mosaic's letter, and I don't intend to send him it because…-" Rosalina began to explain, then cutting herself off mid-sentence because of the awful realization she came to. "Wait a minute...if Mosaic's letter is in Bowser's envelope, and you mixed up the letters, th...then that means…"

"Mama? What does it mean?" The Luma asked.

"It means that...Oh...Oh my...Mosaic probably...received Bowser's letter instead…" Rosalina explained.

"Oh no! Is that bad?" the Luma then asked.

"Very much so," Rosalina answered. "Forget the hate letter for now, I need to get over to Mosaic as soon as I can with the right letter so I can explain what happened to him," Rosalina realized.

"That's terrible!" the Luma exclaimed. "Is there anything I can do to help?" The Luma then asked.

"There is, you can come with me along with another Luma to help me find Mosaic," Rosalina explained to the Luma.

"Thanks mama! I'm on it," The Luma replied, then flying to a different part of the comet observatory to find another Luma to assist themself and Rosalina.

 **V: Cheer Up**

Back at the Mosaic Group's house, Hoops was coming back down from the stairs.

"Hey Mosaic! I found the Wii U!" Hoops said aloud. "So now we can-" Hoops began to continue, before he noticed the saddened look on Mosaic's face. "Hey Mosaic, what's the matter?" Hoops asked him.

"Oh, nothing's wrong Hoops…" Mosaic replied, still not sounding too good.

"Mosaic...I know you well, you look rather down, so I'm presuming there's something you're not telling me, which, assuming there is, there's really no need to hide it," Hoops explained.

Mosaic sighed, then started to explain the issue to him. "So basically, Rosalina sent me a letter just now and...well...just see it for yourself," Mosaic explained, then handing the letter over to Hoops.

Hoops quietly read over the letter to himself, and afterwards placed it on the table next to the couch.

"So essentially, based on what this letter says, Rosalina broke up with you?" Hoops asked.

"That's what I feel like it is based on what it says." Mosaic explained.

"Well, I'm...sorry to hear that…" Hoops stated, feeling bad for Mosaic but also being unsure how to handle this specific thing.

"I didn't think she was still that mad with me over that one time…" Mosaic said to himself.

"Huh? What thing are you talking about?" Hoops questioned, hearing Mosaic.

"So basically, around last week, me and Rosalina had a date of sorts on the Comet Observatory, you know, that large ship we visited one time that travels the cosmos according to her?" Mosaic began to explain, then asking Hoops the question.

"I do remember that place, but carry on?" Hoops replied.

"I had personally cooked dinner for the two of us, however when I came over with the tray of food, I made a horrible accident," Mosaic continued.

"This accident being?" Hoops asked.

"Basically, I accidentally tripped over something, and I ended up dropping it right on top of one of Rosalina's lumas, and they were hurt really bad," Mosaic explained.

"Oof, that doesn't sound good," Hoops responded.

"It wasn't," Mosaic stated.

"What happened after that?" Hoops then asked.

"She sorta seemed like she wanted me to leave in a hurry after I did that, and seemed to be pushing down her anger towards me," Mosaic answered.

"I see…" Hoops replied.

"I can't believe she's still holding that against me considering that it was an accident," Mosaic then remarked.

"That's rather unfortunate, people hold grudges over petty stuff is the thing," Hoops began to explain. "Like for example, remember that one time back when Mario didn't really like me when me and you visited himself and Luigi's house, and how I accidently broke a glass, which he got angry with me about, and due to me snapping back at him too wouldn't let me into his house again for an entire month but eventually got over it?" Hoops then brought up.

"Y...You could be right…" Mosaic said, sounding even more saddened and starting to get teary eyed.

Hoops quickly noticed this, and climbed up into his lap in an attempt that he could comfort him.

Though Mosaic noticed Hoops' concern, he didn't make much note of it.

"Mosaic, I understand that breaking up, especially with someone who you loved is hard to deal with. But you need to remember, there's plenty more cheep cheeps in the sea," Hoops explained to Mosaic. "However, it's alright that your feeling this way, I'll help you through it," Hoops said to Mosaic, then clutching his arms around Mosaic's torso, giving him a comforting hug.

Acknowledging that he's right, Mosaic then puts his own arms around Hoops' body.

"Hoops...I'm glad that your such a good friend to always be there for me and help me through hard things such as this..." Mosaic said.

"Of course I am Mosaic, what are friends for?" Hoops replied.

After the two good friends hugged for awhile longer, the two eventually released their grasp off of one another.

"Are you better now?" Hoops asked.

"A bit I guess…" Mosaic replied.

"That's good, but I think you need a bit more cheering up," Hoops stated. "How about some Mario Kart 8?" Hoops then asked.

"Eh, I don't know if I'd want to stay home right now, I feel it'll just remind me of the letter," Mosaic explained.

"Hmm…then why don't we head to the carnival like everyone else has?" Hoops then suggested. "Maybe they could help you out with how your feeling a bit more," Hoops also added.

"That's a good idea, we should do that," Mosaic said. "Before we do that however, Hoops, do you want to bring your 3-D Glasses?" Mosaic then asked.

"Actually, I do, I heard that at a certain point of the carnival, their going to have a music presentation or concert of sorts there, and it'd be cool to see it in these things," Hoops answered, then running back up the stairs to find them.

"But wait a minute...isn't it already 3-D if it's live action?" Mosaic thought to himself but decided not to question it too deeply.

Hoops then came back down the stairs, wearing his 3-D Glasses.

"Alright, I found them, now are you ready to go Mosaic?" Hoops asked.

"Of course, let's go," Mosaic said, opening the door so that they could leave, and then closing it behind them once the two of them had gotten out.

Afterwards, the two took the same path they took to get to take the warp pipe to Desert Land yesterday, however at the fork in the road, they took the opposite direction as the one they took that day, then made their way up north to Sunbathed Plains, where the carnival was set up.

After traveling north for a bit, the two eventually made their way to the field, and saw a festive looking area surrounded by gates with an entrance in the front where the admission fee for carnival tickets was paid. This seemed to be the carnival, which it indeed was.

"Hey, we made it," Hoops stated. "Now that we're here, let's start by buying tickets at the entrance," Hoops then said.

"That should be simple, especially considering there doesn't seem to be a line right now," Mosaic replied, then along with Hoops walking over to the booth at the entrance to check out tickets.

"Excuse me, we'd like to check out-" Mosaic began to say, however, pausing when he saw who was running the ticket booth.

It was a Toad, this Toad's clothes however were pink and had white spots, and from outside of their hat two pink braids stuck out. He and Hoops recognized the person immediately.

"Toadette?" Mosaic asked.

"Mosaic?" the Toad, indeed being Toadette replied, then noticing Hoops with him as well. "And Hoops?" Toadette then said.

"Indeed it is Toadette, how have you been?" Hoops replied.

"It's been nice, you two?" Toadette responded.

"I've been fine as well, Mosaic however…-" Hoops began to say.

"I'm not in the best mood, so I'm hoping going here will help out a bit," Mosaic, interrupting, explained.

"Oh, that's a bummer, did you want to share why?" Toadette asked.

"I'd prefer to not right now to be honest," Mosaic replied.

"I see," Toadette responded.

"Anyway, I have a question," Hoops said, changing the subject.

"What is it?" Toadette asked.

"Did you see Team S.M.B.X as well as Berry and Rosy purchase any tickets here earlier?" Hoops then asked.

"Well, I remember a purple baby Yoshi and a pink Porcopo coming here and purchasing a couple tickets if you were referring to them?" Toadette answered.

"I was," Hoops replied. "And how about Team S.M.B.X?" Hoops asked next.

"I remember that they definitely did buy some tickets a bit earlier," Toadette began to answer. "I even remember how Toad sounded when he ordered the tickets," Toadette said, then clearing her throat to mimic him. "'We'd like five tickets please!'" Toadette quoted, mimicking Toad's voice as well.

"Thank you for letting us know," Mosaic responded. "Now we'd like to have two tickets ourselves please," he then asked.

Toadette grabbed two tickets for them and asked for admission. "That'll be twenty coins a piece please," Toadette requested, which Mosaic gave to her in exchange for the tickets. "Thank you, now have fun at the carnival!" Toadette said afterwards as Mosaic and Hoops entered the carnival, the two of whom waved at her as they went in.

 **VI: Festive Atmosphere**

The two entered through the carnival gates and looked around, seeing that the atmosphere of the carnival seemed rather festive. All around, there were hundreds of people of different species. There were Yoshis, Toads, Koopas, and even a few Goombas here and there. There were many colorful tents set up where people could go to play minigames for a shot at a prize, or purchase a yummy treat such as cotton candy with people lined up at most of them. There was a rollercoaster that seemed to go around nearly the entire area, a line for a game where the riders go on a minecart ride through a simulated cave, and a ginormous ferries wheel tall enough that it reached over the entire park. From the looks of things, there was many things to do at the carnival in general.

"Hey Mosaic, I realized something," Hoops brought up.

"Oh, what is that Hoops?" Mosaic asked.

"It's about the number of tickets that Team S.M.B.X bought according to Toadette that I find kinda odd," Hoops answered.

"Huh? what about it?" Mosaic replied, somewhat puzzled.

"Well, it got me thinking about the other day when we played that minigame at the Toad's house and I recall that Peach didn't have to pay admission when we played it," Hoops explained to Mosaic.

"Hmm? I don't see where your going with this," Mosaic responded.

"Think about it for a second…" Hoops told him.

Mosaic thought about it for a bit and thought of something. "Wait a moment, I think I see what your saying," Mosaic then stated.

"Yeah, exactly," Hoops answered. "Why would they buy five tickets if Peach didn't need one?" Hoops speculated.

"That's an interesting thing to wonder," Mosaic replied. After a bit more thinking one of them realized an obvious answer. "It's possible they have somebody else with them," Mosaic then deducted.

"Huh...why didn't I think of that, we'll probably find out when we find them," Hoops said. "Anyway, on a different note Mosaic, which ride do you want to go first?" Hoops transitioned to.

"To be honest, I'd rather find the others first before deciding that so that they could possibly help me out with how I'm feeling," Mosaic answered.

"Ah, that's probably a better idea," Hoops replied.

The two looked around the park for awhile and eventually see a peculiar tent sent up in the distance for a game called "Target Blast", where there is a medium sized line. However, even better, they saw that Team S.M.B.X, along with Rosy and Berry were waiting in the back of the line to play it.

"Hey, there they are!" Mosaic stated.

"Let's go over to them!" Hoops then said, in which the two made their way over.

The two go to the back of the line along with the other seven and Mario turned around and noticed them.

"Hey-a guys, look who's-a here!" Mario announced, getting the others' attention and for them to turn around and see Mosaic and Hoops as well.

Along with them however, someone else with the group looked over as well. Mosaic and Hoops immediately recognized that this someone was a green Yoshi.

"I see that you brought Yoshi along with you guys," Mosaic stated. "Well, Yoshi, how have you been lately?" Mosaic then asked, shaking hands with Yoshi.

"Yoshi!" Yoshi replied, speaking in his language.

"Yeah, how've you been Yoshi?" Hoops asked, reaching his hand out for a handshake too. As Yoshi reached however, Hoops pulled his hand away. "Sike! Just kidding, I'm not…" Hoops began to say. "Hey, I'm just kidding," Hoops then said cutting himself off. "I'll give you a real handshake now," Hoops then said, sticking out his hand again, this time giving Yoshi a real one.

"Umm, why did you guys come? Rosy said that you two were staying home to relax," Link questioned, puzzled of them being there.

"Well it's because…" Hoops began to say. "Umm, you're okay with me explaining it to them, right Mosaic?" Hoops then asked them.

"Sure thing Hoops," Mosaic responded.

"Alright," Hoops said. "So basically, Mosaic and I were going to play video games and order some pizza to go along with it," Hoops began explaining. "And I'm guessing while I was looking for the Wii U, Mosaic had gotten the mail from outside. Correct?" Hoops explained, and then asked Mosaic.

"Yep," Mosaic answered.

"And in the mail he had gotten a letter," Hoops continued.

"A letter?!" Toad exclaimed.

"Whom was it from?" Peach asked.

"Patience, I was going to get to that," Hoops responded.

"When I came down the stairs, Mosaic had already read it, and didn't look like he was doing too well with it," Hoops continued explaining. "Also, the letter was from Rosalina," Hoops added.

"Rosalina!?" Mario exclaimed with shock.

"You-a mean...that woman who we meet in space one time with all of little stars with-a them?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, that Rosalina," Hoops continued. "Anyway, Mosaic showed me the letter, it was rather negative what was written on it, however I'll spare you the details unless Mosaic wanted to go into it later,"

"Alright then," Link replied.

"So I helped him to get better, and well...here we are," Hoops finished.

"Huh, I'm sorry to hear that about Rosalina…" Link inputted. "Maybe some games at the carnival can cheer you up though," he then said.

"Yeah, hopefully it does help out, that is why we came here after all," Hoops replied.

Meanwhile, Rosalina, via means of teleportation, had made her way to Mushroom Plains, and over to the neighborhood in which the Mosaic Group lived in, having knowledge of their place of residence, with his proper letter with her and two Lumas, one red and one yellow.

"Now that we're here, hopefully Mosaic will let me make it up to him," Rosalina stated.

After looking around the neighborhood for awhile, Rosalina found their house via the house number and walked down the path up to the doorsteps and knocked.

"Hello? Mosaic? Are you in there? I wanted to talk," Rosalina spoke through the door, however receiving no answer. "He's not answering…" Rosalina thought to herself. "Maybe he doesn't want to answer me?" Rosalina continued. "Luma, could you look into the windows and see if anyone's in there?"

"Sure Mama!" The red Luma replied, then flying off around the house, looking to see if they saw anyone.

…

The Luma then flew back to Rosalina and explained to her. "Mama, I checked, and all of the lights appear to be turned off," The Luma explained.

"So they are…" Rosalina said. "He must not be home," Rosalina then said. "Let's go look for him elsewhere," Rosalina then said, leaving, with the Lumas following them.

Back at the carnival, the group had made their way to the front of the line for Target Blast, seeing that it was run by a Koopa, Mario walked up next to the booth and greeted the Koopa.

"Hello!" Mario said to the Koopa. "Could you-a explain to us how this-a game is-a played?" Mario then asked.

"Sure thing," the Koopa Troopa said. "The object of the game is to use this, of course, voluntary venus fire trap to smash as many targets as you can within the span of a minute," The Koopa Troopa explained to them. "Red targets are worth one point, green ones are worth three and blue ones are worth five."

"I-a get it." Mario replied, picking up the potted plant ready to take his turn before Peach intervened.

"Hey Mario, I realized that as Mosaic isn't feeling too well, you wouldn't mind letting him take his turn first correct?" Peach asked him.

"Oh...that's-a good idea Peach." Mario replied. "Here you go Mosaic, you can-a go first!" Mario told Mosaic, handing him the venus fly trap.

"Thank you Mario," Mosaic replied, then raising the fire breathing plant and pointing towards the target area in anticipation of them coming into range.

Once the game started, many targets various in color began to slide into view from the sides of the gallery, in which Mosaic shot with consistency.

Once the game had ended, the Koopa Troopa added up Mosaic's score.

"It seems that you earned a total of...ninety points!" The Koopa stated.

"Wow! Great job Mosaic!" Toad congratulated.

"That earns you a medium prize, which means you can feel free to pick anything from this shelf," The Koopa troopa informed, pointing at the second to top shelf.

Mosaic looks over the prizes to decide which of the options he wants, seeing things such as plush fire flowers, stars and mushrooms, large lollipops, etc. eventually making a decision.

"Yeah um, I'll take the giant rainbow lollipop please," Mosaic asked.

"Here you go!" The Koopa troopa said, handing it to Mosaic.

"Thank you," Mosaic replied.

"You're welcome," the koopa replied courteously.

Afterwards, each of the others took their turns in the order of Mario, Yoshi, Hoops, Peach, Berry, Rosy, Link, Luigi and Toad, each earning a different number of points and a different sized prize.

Berry, Yoshi, Hoops, and Peach each earned over thirty points, earning them small prizes, which the four chose bubbles, a small lollipop, and small plush stars respectively.

Luigi and Link both performed a bit better, both earning over eighty points, netting them each a medium prize, in which they got a large lollipop and lava lamp respectively. Toad and Rosy however were rather out of luck, due to earning less than thirty points each, they walked out of the game empty handed. Mario however had hit the jackpot, having had earned over one hundred points during the game, it netted him any prize from the top shelf, in which he choose a copy of the board game "Rainbow Road". The group then left the tent and went over to the a different part of the carnival.

"Despite me not earning anything, playing that game was pretty fun," Rosy stated. "But what to do now?" Rosy wondered.

"What-a else other than to have a good-a time?" Mario replied. "Race you guys to the- a ferris wheel!" Mario said, then suddenly jumping on top of Yoshi. "Come on Yoshi! Let's-a go!" Mario said, then signaling Yoshi to start running towards it, nearly running others over several times from negligence.

"Mario! Watch where you're going!" Peach shouted to Mario, in which he didn't reply, but figuring he didn't hear, just followed them to the ferris wheel along with the rest of the group.

After the group had ridden on the ferris wheel, they all went on to do multiple different activities while they were there such as ride on many fast paced rides, try good food and overall, have a good time.

 **VII: We Will Rock You!**

Having had been at the carnival nearly all day, the sun was now starting to set. The group had just gotten off of the roller coaster and after doing so, Peach talked with Mosaic.

"So Mosaic, have you been having fun at the carnival today?" Peach asked Mosaic.

"Being honest here, no, I haven't really," Mosaic responded.

"Oh? Y...You haven't?" Peach replied, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, for one, there was the ferris wheel, in which you guys didn't listen to me when I said I didn't want to ride it, considering you know how I am with heights," Mosaic began to rant. "Second off, when we went in line for nearly an hour to get cotton candy, the machine broke as soon as we got to the front, wasting our time," Mosaic continued. "Third, I felt like I nearly vomited when we rode on...what was it called? The gravitron?" Mosaic continued.

"You mean the spinning thing?" Rosy asked.

"Yeah, that thing," Mosaic replied.

"And fourth, we just rode on the roller coaster, and I nearly had a heart attack from the speed that it was going and how high up we were," Mosaic then said.

"I'm sorry to hear that Mosaic," Peach responded, then continuing. "Well, maybe we can-"

"May I have your attention please?" a voice suddenly ran out.

"Hey that sounds like it came from the loudspeaker," Hoops stated.

"Yeah, and that voice sounded like...Toadette!" Toad added.

"Now that I have your attention, let's start by saying, I'm sure you've all been having a good time at the carnival today, am I right?" Toadette said on the speaker.

"Well...not everyone…" Link responded to the speaker.

"But I'm sure a lot of y'all want to see something new right?" Toadette continues.

"Oh, what is-a Toadette referring to?" Luigi questioned.

"Well, you're all in for treat, because I'd like to announce that in ten minutes…" Toadette began to say, then stopping to build suspense. "We'll be starting a concert with a live performance from our sponsor!" Toadette announced. "If you wish to attend it, head to the stage located in the center of carnival!" Toadette then informed.

Much of the crowd seemed excited to hear this, and began to make their way over to the stage where the sponsor would perform.

"Hey guys, I think we should watch the performance too!" Rosy told the others.

"Sounds-a good to me," Mario inputted.

"Why not," Hoops opinionated.

"Alright! Follow that crowd!" Rosy then said, pointing to the crowd and wanting the others to follow her lead.

Meanwhile, Rosalina with her Lumas had ended up making their way to Sunbathed Plains, still searching for Mosaic.

"Oh this is no good, we've been looking for Mosaic the entire day, and haven't been able to find him anywhere." Rosalina stated. "And I'm really tired now, I guess we have no choice but to-"

"Mama! Look at that!" one of the Lumas cried, turning her attention towards the carnival in the distance.

At the carnival, the group, along with the rest of the crowd that they followed waited near a stage set where the curtains were down for the concert to begin.

"Do you guys know who's performing tonight?" Mosaic asked the others.

"Nope," Toad replied.

"Not really," Peach said.

"Not a clue," Hoops inputted.

"Welp, guess we'll just need to wait and find out then," Mosaic then stated.

"Alright ladies and gentleshrooms, boys and girls! Beings of all species!" Toadette began to yell on the loudspeaker. "We are now beginning the concert with the live performance of our sponsor!" Toadette announced.

"Here it-a comes...who's-a it going to-a be?" Mario said in anticipation.

"Give it up for...The Buzzies!" Toadette then finished. In which the crowd gave a loud cheer.

"The Buzzies? Who are they?" Mosaic questioned.

"Yeah, I haven't really heard of them either," Link inputted.

"Hey, I've actually heard of these guys," Hoops mentioned. "I even know each of the stage names they go by, the lead singer I know is named Spinner, and his bandmates Wrecker, Scale and Smasher," Hoops continued to give his knowledge on. "They've also made a lot of great songs such as I Have A Feeling, Resolution, and Fly Away," Hoops continued to explain. "And all of those songs by them were actually pretty good, so I think that we can expect a good performance by them," Hoops finished.

The curtains rose and the stage lights blared on. And onto the stage came "The Buzzies" as they were called, a band consisting fully of Buzzy Beetles. Buzzy Beetles in general were quadpred, stubby legged creatures who bore blue shells encasing the torso of their body, the exposed parts of which were tan or similar in color. Each member of the Buzzies however had something unique to their appearance. The drummer of the band, Wrecker, had a shell with a dark green shade, and they wore a wig in the shape of a mohawk. The guitarist, Smasher, has a shell that beared a purple color and they wore a droopy black wig. The keyboard player, Scale, had a blue color like most other Buzzy Beetles, and though they didn't wear a wig, they wore a pair of star-shaped shades with a golden frame. And finally, the lead singer of the band, Spinner, had a shell that was as red as fire, and they wore a spiked wig on their head.

Spinner then grabbed the microphone on the stage and prepared to say something.

"Tell me! People of the Mushroom Kingdom! How are you all doing tonight!?" Spinner shouted to the crowd, who cheered loudly in response. "Sounds like your doing great! Now, I have a question for you all, are you ready to hear the latest hit of our album!?" Spinner then asked the crowd, whom once again cheered. "Alright then! You want a show! We'll give you one!" Spinner shouted, being met with another cheer.  
"I can't hear you! Louder!" Spinner said, urging the audience to be louder, in which they were. "One more time! Louder!" Spinner yelled, the audience being louder than before.

After doing so, the smoke machine on the stage blew, and the band began to start playing their instruments.

"We like to call this song…One Misunderstanding," Spinner told the audience as he prepared to sing it, then starting as the song began to play.

The audience speculated what the song was about as the performance continued, including Mosaic & Co. All of whom which eventually realized, they were singing about love, and a misunderstanding.

"It's interesting that their singing about this specifically huh Hoops?" Mosaic mentioned.

"Indeed it is," Hoops responded.

 **VIII: Resolution**

As the concert continued, Rosalina had at this point checked into the carnival and was searching the carnival along with her Lumas for Mosaic.

"Mama, I don't see him anywhere," One of the Lumas said.

"I don't see him either," Rosalina replied.

After looking around a bit longer, they saw a large crowd gathered at the concert area.

"A large crowd...maybe he's here," Rosalina stated.

As the group continued to enjoy the live performance, a voice rang out.

"Excuse me, has anyone seen someone by the name of Mosaic around here?" Rosalina said aloud, however, though the audience heard them, it's not enough that they hear her question. "Hey, do you mind having the performers stop for a moment so that I can speak?" Rosalina asked the audience, in which they understood, then yelling for the Buzzies to stop for a second. In which the Buzzies indeed do, to them and everyone else's puzzling, and the audience's silence.

"Huh? Is there a problem with the song?" Spinner asked the audience.

"I'd like to repeat my earlier question," Rosalina said aloud. "Has anyone seen someone by the name of Mosaic around here?" Rosalina asked aloud.

"T...that voice...Rosalina?" Mosaic said to himself, recognizing her voice.

"I actually saw them around here!" Someone in the audience nearby said, pointing in the direction of Mosaic. A lot of the audience, being familiar with Mosaic as well, point him out too.

"I have something I need to tell them," Rosalina added.

Upon this fact being revealed, the crowd made way for Rosalina so that she could make her way over to him.

"Rosalina? Why are you here and what did you want to tell me? Aren't you still mad at me for what happened and send me a letter saying you never wanted to see me again?" Mosaic questioned Rosalina.

"About that letter Mosaic, I didn't intend for you to get it and I accidentally got the letters mixed up," Rosalina explained.

"What? What do you mean?" Mosaic asked.

"Basically, I meant to send that letter to Bowser, but a mix up happened where I sent the letters in the wrong envelopes, or more specifically, one of my Lumas did," Rosalina began to further explain. "The letter I meant for you to receive is in my hand, do you still care to read it?" Rosalina then asked, showing it to Mosaic.

Mosaic, though silent, agreed to opening it. As the audience watched this play out, Rosalina handed Mosaic the letter, in which he opened up and read aloud:

"Hello Mosaic, I just wanted to talk to you a bit about the other day, you don't need to beat yourself up it, mistakes happen. I understand one of my Lumas got hurt, however, I understand as well that it was an accident, so I just wanted to let you know, you don't need to worry about what happened that day, all is forgiven and I hope to see you again sometime.

\- Love, Rosalina"

"Wow...I'm glad to see that this is the case and it's hard to believe this was all just a big misunderstanding."

"Agreed," the rest of the group said in unison.

Though acknowledging them, Rosalina wanted to ask someone else a question and turned toward the stage.

"Hey, Buzzies, aren't you going to finish your song? Everyone's waiting," Rosalina told them.

"Oh yeah, of course we were mam," Spinner, somewhat nervously said.

As the Buzzies resumed, the crowd got back together, while Mosaic and Rosalina stood side to side to one another, holding hands as they enjoyed the rest of the performance.

 _ **"Once again, all things seemed to work out for everyone despite the mix-up. Even though mistakes happen, more often than not, they can be fixed. It is to be remembered however...some mistakes are a bigger hindrance than others…"**_

 _ **Next Time...Chapter 5: Shortage**_


	5. Chapter 5

**I: Important Meeting**

 _ **"**_ _ **The Mosaic Group, along with Mario, Luigi, and Link**_ _ **,**_ _ **had all made their way to Toad Town, a town about a mile away from Mushroom Castle, in which Peach lived in**_ _ **her**_ _ **rule of the Mushroom Kingdom. Today, Peach called all of them over, because she wished to discuss something of importance with all of them."**_

"I wonder why Peach wants us to meet with her?" Rosy wondered.

"Maybe she just wants to eat some-a cake, it wouldn't-a be the first time," Mario replied.

"That is a possibility," Link added. "Then again, did you guys get a letter about this beforehand?" he then asked.

"Yeah, we-a did actually," Luigi replied.

"Well what did it say?" Link then asked.

"It said-a to 'meet with-a her as soon-a as possible, tomorrow morning at best. We must-a discuss something urgent,'" Luigi quoted.

"Huh, I wouldn't expect it to just be cake if the letter said that," Link replied.

"Yep, who knows? Maybe she's saying the urgent thing is that they're out of cake ingredients," Hoops added in.

"Umm, Hoops? I don't think Peach would consider that urgent," Mosaic replied.

"Of course," Hoops responded.

"Either-a way, I'm curious as all of you on what-a this is about," Mario stated.

Berry then stated in his language that he wonders that too.

A bit of time later, the group had made their way through Toad Town, and had crossed the bridge that went into the field surrounding Mushroom Castle. The field itself was rather open with only the occasional short tree here and a few, unopened question blocks that generally were keep in place for decoration, and finally a dust path that lead to and around the castle.

The castle itself was white in interior and decorated with several mushroom shaped windows bering gold frames and a blue tint on the windows themselves. The roof was painted red and had several prism shaped protrusions at the top, with the center one having a flag up top.

The group enters the castle and Princess Peach, along with Toad, were waiting for them inside of the main hall of the castle along with several Toad guards, each of them wielding spears.

"You all have arrived!" Peach stated. "Now, may you all follow me so that we may discuss the subject?" Peach then asked.

"Of-a course," Mario replied.

Rosy, Berry, and even Hoops, however, seemed to be eyeing the walls of the castle rather curiously.

"Hey Peach?" Hoops asked Peach.

"Yes Hoops?" Peach asked.

"Me, Berry-" Hoops started.

"Ahem…" Rosy retorted unamused.

"Oh...and Rosy were curious about this castle and wanted to take a look around," Hoops started to explain. "Is it okay if we look around for awhile and then join the discussion later?' Hoops then asked.

"Well…" Peach began to respond.

"I personally think it'd be fine," Mosaic inputted, "considering your letter told the Marios what we're discussing is serious, which is correct, right?" Mosaic then asked.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Peach asked.

"I just wanted to make sure you didn't make the same mistake as she did the other day," Mosaic explained.

"Oh, yeah, that is what the letter said. And yeah, considering how young Hoops, Rosy and Berry are, I don't think we'd need to have them discuss it," Peach replied.

"Great! Catch up with you guys in a bit then," Hoops said, leaving with Rosy and Berry to look around the castle.

"Now, Mario, Luigi, Link, Mosaic," Peach began. "Follow me into the throne room so we can discuss this," she continued.

"Okie dokie," Luigi said.

"Let's-a go," Mario said next.

"Alright then," Link stated.

The four then followed Peach up the staircase leading to the room, with two Toad guards closing the door behind them. They then made their way through the hall and into a rather spacious room, where there was a large, rectangular table with fancy looking chairs surrounding it on all sides, the total number being around twelve, and one large chair on one side of the table, presumably the one for Peach to sit in.

"Heya Peach, I guess-a it slipped-a my mind, but, where's-a Toadsworth? I haven't seena him around lately," Mario asked her.

"Oh, well, he doesn't feel the need to constantly keep his eye on me anymore, and felt that he needed a vacation, so he's been out of town the last few weeks," Peach explained.

"Oh, I understand-a," Mario replied.

"Anyway, we should get to the meeting, considering you said it's important," Link added.

"Of course," Peach replied, as they made their way to the main seat and the others sat around the table. "So the topic at hand relates to our resources around town," Peach began to explain.

"A shortage of resources?" Mosaic questioned.

Meanwhile, Hoops, Berry, and Rosy were looking around the castle and have been looking around the hallway leading into the main room.

"This place is pretty interesting huh?" Rosy stated.

Berry agreed in his language.

"Yeah, it is. I never really got the chance to look around here much when I met Peach here for the first time," Hoops stated.

"So you've been here before Hoops?" Rosy asked.

"Yeah," Hoops replied.

Berry then asked a question.

"Yep, and it's where I met Peach indeed, Berry," Hoops replied to his question. "Kinda funny, but when I first met Peach-" Hoops started.

"Hoops, hold that thought. I hear talking over there," Rosy interrupted.

"Is that so?" Hoops said. "Guess I'll have to wait," he then stated, rolling his eyes.

Hoops, Berry, and Rosy peeked into the room and listened to the conversation.

"So what you're saying is we're running short on food for the orphanage?" Link asked, giving his input into the conversation.

"That is pretty much the case," Peach replied.

"That's not-a good!" Mario stated in response.

"It indeed is not," Peach said. "And along with that, it's possible we don't have the funds to provide for them straight up, which makes this a problem," Peach then said.

Upon hearing only these words, Hoops told Rosy and Berry something.

"Hey guys, follow me," Hoops told them.

"Wait, we're not going to-" Rosy began to ask.

"No, I have a different idea," Hoops interrupted, then having her and Berry follow him in the hallway.

 **II: Extreme Measures**

"Okay, so here's my idea on what we should do," Hoops started. "We should go to several stores and borrow the food from there so we can give it to the orphanage,"

Hoops then stated, giving his idea.

"Wait, Hoops, we don't have any money, wouldn't that be stealing?" Rosy pointed out.

"We could just pay them back later on for it," Hoops replied.

"Wouldn't that take forever though?" Rosy argued.

Berry then added to it.

"Rosy, this is important, i don't think that matters," Hoops responded to her. "And Berry, there isn't a need to worry about us being locked up, i can assure you that won't ever happen to you, me, or Rosy, especially not to me though, being quick on my feet and all," Hoops said.

"I guess…" Rosy admitted.

In which Berry also agreed in his language.

"Good, now that you two get it, i'd like you to follow me please," Hoops then said, leading the way, only just missing the discussion that went on in the mainroom as they made their way out the castle.

"I think a good idea could be if we had the orphanage establish a giveaway donation for food and had it be posted up around town," Mosaic suggested, giving his input.

"To be honest, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," Toad replied.

"It could work," Link inputted.

"Sounds-a good to me," Luigi responded.

"I agree Mosaic, that-a does seem to be the best idea," Mario said, giving his opinion.

"Surprised i hadn't thought of that," Peach stated. "But hey, I think it'll work out," She then said. "Let's start by calling the orphanage and asking them about this idea," Peach then said, going to a different room to use the phone there.

Once she made it to the phone, she dialed the number.

"Hello? Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom speaking," Peach said, beginning to speak into it.

 **III: Plan Execution Go!**

Meanwhile a bit of time later, Hoops, Berry and Rosy had made their way to Toad Town and to a place rather distant from the rest of the town in a field, and Hoops was looking at their first stop, a store that sold different kinds of produce.

"This is a good place to start, Franklin's Produce," Hoops said, also stating the name of the store. "Let's see what this troopa koopa here is doing right now," He then stated, peaking into the window.

"Yes Harriet i'll try to get those Strawberries delivered to you by tomorrow," The Koopa farmer said, talking presumably with someone he knew over the phone. "But for now i gotta finish my harvest for any customers that come by," he then said. "So i'll talk to you later," They said and then paused a bit, awaiting a response. "Bye," he said afterwards, then grabbing a sickle they left hanging up and heading outside with it.

"Huh, lucky break," Hoops stated. "Now you two, let's go inside and grab as many of the crops as we can!" Hoops told the others, then rushing inside the store.

"Here goes nothing…" Rosy said, following Hoops inside along with Berry.

The three then proceeded to take multiple different kinds of fruits and veggies from within the store and then made their way back out with it.

"Okay Hoops," Rosy said. "Where do we go now?" she then asked.

"next i'm thinking...how about that convenience store that just a bit south of Toad Town?" Hoops suggested.

"I guess that could work," Rosy replied.

"Then that way we go!" Hoops said.

"Wait Hoops," Rosy interrupted.

Hoops then stopped and questioned this. "What was it?" Hoops asked Rosy, sounding a bit unamused.

"We should find a way to do this in less exposing way," Rosy explained.

"Oh? How exactly?" Hoops questioned.

"By traveling through the Mushroom Kingdom's sewer system of course!" Rosy answered.

"Through there?" Hoops asked.

"It's the safest way to do this," Rosy began to explain. "Most people wouldn't be looking around down there, aside from, i don't know, plumbers or such," Rosy continued.

"Hmm, good point, i guess we could…-" Hoops began to say before making a realization. "Wait a minute, but aren't Mario and Luigi plumbers?" Hoops pointed out.

"We don't need to worry about that! They probably won't be down there," Rosy replied.

"Good point i guess," Hoops replied. "But if this goes badly, i think you know exactly who's to blame here. now, lead the way?" Hoops then shortly after added and asked.

Though unamused at his attitude, Rosy replied "This way, I think I know where the nearest manhole i-"

And at that moment, Rosy got cut off by something.

"Oh my stars! Where are my crops?" The Troopa farmer exclaimed, having entered his mart and seeing the crops gone.

"Shoot, and we better hurry to it as well," Rosy stated, rushing for them to follow her way, in which they do.

The rest of the day for the three was pretty much more of the same. They made their way to the grocery store, where they snuck into the storage room when none were watching and took several packs of cheese, yogurt and milk out of it.

They then proceeded next to the supermarket, where they took different kinds of meat, as well as snacks such as crackers and chips.

Meanwhile, Team S.M.B.X and Mosaic were all gathered at Mario and Luigi's house and discussed.

"Alright, so now that we've established a way for the orphanage to get a food supply, what should we do now?" Mosaic asked the others.

"Can't we just-a relax for once instead of always looking for a something to do?" Luigi inputted.

"Well…" Mosaic started.

"I agree with Luigi, this is like...the fourth time something's happened in a row with us getting no chance to just not do much?" Toad stated.

"Yeah, you're right to be honest, how about we just watch a movie or something?" Mosaic suggested. "Okay with you Mario?" Mosaic then asked.

"Don't-a see why that's an issue." Mario replied.

"Hmm, shouldn't we call Hoops and the others and see if they want to see the movie?" Peach suggested.

"I was wondering where those three are to be honest," Link stated.

"Good idea Peach, i'll try calling him," Mosaic stated.

Mosaic dialed Hoops phone and awaited an answer, however, receiving none.

"Weird, he won't pick up," Mosaic informed the others.

"That is strange indeed…" Link responded.

"Well, I guess they-a will need to miss out then if they aren't-a going to show up," Mario stated.

"I guess so…" Mosaic replied. "Let's get the movie started," Mosaic then said, looking for a DVD to put into the player afterwards, which after doing so, started the television up, which played the movie on the screen like so.

Meanwhile, Hoops, Rosy and Berry had been hiding out in the sewers, and at this point it seemed that they would have enough food so that they could feed the orphanage, and were hiding out so they could discuss how they were going to handle things from here on out.

"Alright, so now that we've gathered enough food, what should we do now?" Rosy asked.

In which Berry asked the same.

"I was trying to think of that, and well…" Hoops began. "Do you have any ideas?" Hoops asked.

"No I don't, I wouldn't have asked that question otherwise," Rosy explained.

"Hmm, let me think about this for a second then," Hoops replied.

A few minutes later, Hoops tells them what he came up with.

"Alright so here's what we're going to do," Hoops began. "We should find a time that we can bring the food to Team S.M.B.X and Mosaic so then we can give it to the orphanage," Hoops laid out.

"But Hoops, what if they ask us where we got all this food on such short notice? Don't you think they'd be atleast a bit suspicious of that?" Rosy pointed out.

"Eh, I think we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Hoops answered.

"You mean you never came up with a plan for that to begin with?" Rosy asked.

"Nope," Hoops replied as he began to make his way over to the food pile and curl up his legs a bit and yawn. "Anyway, i'm getting kinda sleepy, we should sleep out here tonight until tomorrow morning and then go from there," Hoops finished.

"I guess so," Rosy responded, yawning a bit herself and curling up to rest in the same area as Hoops.

Berry gave agreement in his language before settling down to rest in the same general spot himself.

 _ **The Next Morning…**_

 **IV: Exposure**

Mosaic, Peach, Link and Toad had all still been at the Mario Bros'. House. They had slept there overnight as it saved time incase they needed to discuss again and they just had felt like doing so, and were all gathered in the living room looking for something on TV.

"Since Hoops and the others still haven't arrived, how about we see what's on the news right now?" Mosaic suggested.

"Wait, but does he and the other two even know where we are?" Toad asked.

"Well he should, I sent him a text message and everything," Mosaic answered.

"And he still won't answer?" Toad then questioned.

"Nope, he won't," Mosaic replied.

"Odd, but I do agree we could just see what the TV is broadcasting in the meantime," Toad said in response. "Mario, may you turn it on since you're holding the remote?" Toad asked.

"Sure-a thing," Mario replied, then reaching for the remote and clicking the TV.

The electronic device's large screen flashed on, showing a live news broadcast, running it, the Mushroom Kingdom Press. And the press' speaker began to announce the following:

"This just in, in the areas around Toad Town, we've been receiving multiple reports of food being ransacked from the stores around town."

"Mama mia! Trouble again?" Mario stated, surprised to hear it.

"The police during their investigations found that the places that have been ransacked are the following: the produce store, owned by Koopa Troopa Farmer Franklin, the grocery store, where when multiple cartons of milk, as well as several packages of cheese and yogurt, a shortage was found when the amount in storage was counted, and finally, the supermarket, where multiple kinds of food, such as crackers, chips, among other things were found to be missing as well."

"Oh man, that's really not good…" Mosaic inputted.

"The police are unable to find any form of a lead on who was responsible for this otherwise, but are still trying their best to find at least a shred of evidence pointing to it, and intend to update when they do find something."

At this moment, Peach turned off the TV, then asking a question.

"Alright, who do you guys personally think is responsible for this occurrence?" she asked.

"Do you think it could-a have been-a Bowser?" Luigi answered.

"I wouldn't think so Luigi," Link replied. "I doubt Bowser would go to doing such a small thing so quick considering his last endeavor," Link explained.

"Yeah, and knowing him, he probably would be so incompetent that he'd leave behind something very incriminating," Toad added.

"That is-a true…" Luigi said in response.

As they talked, Mosaic had been in thought about who it could have been and spoke quietly to himself.

"Th...that actually lines up…" he thought aloud.

"Hmm? What-a lines up Mosaic?" Mario asked.

"Oh, umm, nothing, nothing," Mosaic bluffed. "But I was thinking that we haven't seen Hoops, Rosy or Berry since our meeting yesterday afternoon and it makes me wonder what their doing to just disappear suddenly," Mosaic continued.

"That is an interesting question," Toad replied.

"Yeah, i wonder that too," Link added.

"If their not-a going to come to us, at this-a point maybe we should try to look for-a them? Who's-a with me?" Mario suggested.

"That's not a bad idea, they could probably help out with tracking down our culprits," Toad answered.

"I'd agree," Mosaic inputted.

"I do too," Peach stated next.

"Doesn't sound real bad," Link said.

"Er, maybe I could-a stay here and hold-a down the fort?" Luigi said, trying to get out of it.

"Come on Luigi, you can't negotiate all the time," Toad said.

"I guess im-ma in too then..." Luigi graciously replied.

"Alright-a then," Mario said. "Now that we've all agreed, what's the most-a effective way to look for-a them?" Mario questioned.

"How about we split up in pairs?" Mosaic suggested. "It was rather effective when we did it the other day so it should work out this time," he then explained.

"Good idea Mosaic," Peach said. "And looking in the three places we see them most often should help out," she continued.

"Exactly what i was thinking," Mosaic replied. "I'd say that Mario and Luigi look around Grassland a bit to see if they went there," Mosaic began to layout. "Toad and Link could probably see if their anywhere around Toad Town," Mosaic continued. "And Peach and I will check my and their house to see if their there as well, if their not there, we'll try looking around the neighborhood and then go on from there," Mosaic finished. "Sound good to you all?" he then asked.

"I'd say-a so," Mario opinionated.

"Sure…" Luigi inputted.

"That'll work," Peach replied.

"I suppose so," Toad answered.

"Pretty much what's already been said," Link said.

"Then it's settled, let's get going now, the sooner we find them the faster we can figure this situation out," Mosaic stated, as he walked over to the door. "Come on Peach," He told her as he went through the door leading out of the house.

"Sure thing Mosaic," Peach replied as she followed him outside to go with him to search for the three.

Meanwhile, Hoops along with Rosy and Berry had still been in the sewers walking on the sides of one of the waterways, carrying the ransacked food and were trying to figure out what to do next, having have seen through an open manhole that the sun was up.

"Okay Hoops, so what do we do now?" Rosy asked.

"Well, we should probably put all of this food somewhere at least until we find that it's a good time to give it to the orphanage," Hoops explained to her.

"Okay, but where?" Rosy asked.

"Hmm…" Hoops said as he thought to himself. "Well that depends, where are we right now in this sewer system?" Hoops asked.

"Well, i'm actually not entirely sure," Rosy responded. "However, if we climbed out of here through one of the manholes or a warp pipe we could find that out," Rosy continued.

"Alright, how about this one then?" Hoops asked, pointing at a manhole above them.

"Well doesn't hurt to check atleast," Rosy inputted, following Hoops as the latter climbed the ladder leading to the way out.

"Ow!" Hoops exclaimed.

"What happened Hoops?" Rosy asked.

"Bumped my head on this thing…" Hoops replied, annoyed.

Berry gave input, sounding embarrassed with Hoops' mistake.

"Hoops...you know your supposed to push it to get it open correct?" Rosy asked.

"Obviously…" Hoops responded, then pushing on it to get it open.

After opening it, Hoops peaked out and took a look around the outside of it, seeing the area they were in was rather familiar…

"Hey guys...we're right below our neighborhood!" Hoops informed the others, signaling them to follow him up.

"As i say, checking always helps out," Rosy stated, as she climbed up the ladder.

As she climbed up however, she accidently dropped a piece of fruit, which landed next to Berry, who picked it up and was about to put it in his mouth.

"Berry! Don't eat that!" Rosy sternly told Berry.

Berry acknowledged them, stopping what they were doing in the process.

"We haven't paid for this stuff yet, and if we're caught doing anything with it when we haven't paid for it, do you realize what could happen?" Rosy continued telling them.

Berry felt that they should listen to them, so they abstained from eating the fruit due to that.

After the two had made it out of the sewer along with Hoops, they shut off the manhole and talked out what to do now.

"So what should we do?" Rosy asked.

"I'm thinking we head to our house, and hide the food in there until we have an explanation ready for Team S.M.B.X and Mosaic," Hoops told them.

"Hmm, I think that could work," Rosy replied.

In which Berry agreed as well.

"Alright, now follow me, I know where it is," Hoops replied, leading the way.

The three eventually made their way to the acre of land in which they house stood, only to remember an unthankful detail.

"Umm Hoops, I actually just thought of something," Rosy stated.

"Which is?" Hoops asked.

"Well, do we actually have a way to get inside?" Rosy stated.

"Oh, umm, well…" Hoops began to stutter.

"I know we have only two keys to the house," Rosy started to analyze. "Mosaic has one key, but he's not here right now so we can't ask him about it. And the other one, I believe me and you share it?" Rosy continued.

"Oh yeah, we do both share a key." Hoops replied. "Unfortunately…" he then added under his breath.

"I heard that…" Rosy mentioned.

Hoops, ignoring them, continued. "Anyway, I don't have it, do you have it?" Hoops then asked.

"I don't remember bringing it this morning," Rosy replied.

Hoops sighed in disappointment. "Of course…" he then stated. "Well I guess we could just use the key under the mat," Hoops then stated.

Berry gave input, surprised to hear this.

"There's a key under the mat?" Rosy asked, sounding shocked.

"Yeah, i had suggested getting one in case of emergencies," Hoops explained.

This compelled Rosy to look underneath the mat, where they indeed found a shiny gold key.

"Huh, that's pretty convenient…" Rosy stated aloud seeing this. "There's however a problem with doing this," Rosy began to add.

"What's the problem with it?" Hoops asked.

"Well, it's bad to leave this key out here because if someone found it, they would be able to break into our house and take whatever they wanted," Rosy explained.

"It's hidden in a spot that i doubt a burglar would look though, don't see how that's much of a problem," Hoops replied.

"Yeah, it's not likely, but it could still happen, so we should make sure we stay cautious about that," Rosy explained. "But anyway, let's head inside now," Rosy then stated, changing the subject.

The three went inside with the food, closing the door behind them.

 ** _Later…_**

 **V: Discussion & Solution**

Mosaic and Peach had made their way to the former's house to see if they'd find the other three there and up to the doormat at the front of the door.

"Now that we're here Mosaic, we should knock to see if their inside," Peach suggested.

"That would be logical," Mosaic replied, then giving the door a knock and waiting for an answer.

A bit of time passes, and the door props open, Mosaic's knock having had been heard.

"O-Oh! Hey there Mosaic!" the answerer, being Hoops said upon seeing them nervously.

"So you were here Hoops!" Mosaic replied. "Are Berry and Rosy here too?" Mosaic asked.

"Ah, uh...yeah. They are," Hoops answered.

"That's great, could you have them come over here?" Peach asked. "We wanted to talk with you three about a couple of things," Peach explained.

"...I...I see," Hoops responded. "I'll go get them...umm...you guys can come inside," Hoops continued, then running up the stairs to the two's room to get them.

Inside the two's room, they were in the middle of a random discussion.

"And that's why i'm contemplating being more fashionable past this bow someday," Rosy said to Berry.

Berry understood, however, due to the length Rosy went on for, asked if she really had to go on for that long.

"I suppose i could have been a bit shorter," Rosy replied.

The two suddenly hear a knock, so Rosy opens it up, seeing it's Hoops.

"Guys...they're here!" Hoops informed them.

"Who? Do you mean…" Rosy began to ask.

"Mosaic and Peach!" Hoops answered.

"Oh no, what do we tell them?" Rosy thought aloud, unsure what do.

"I think...we shouldn't mention it yet and try to act casual for now," Hoops suggested.

"Good thinking," Rosy replied.

Berry nodded in agreement shortly after.

"Now, let's go have our chat with them, they wanted to discuss 'a couple things' with us as they said," Hoops informed. "Come on," Hoops then stated as he gave a hand sign and turned around, making his way out of the room, having the two follow him down the steps.

The three made their way downstairs into the living room, where Mosaic and Peach had been sitting on the sofa, waiting for them.

"Oh, so you now that you've brought them down here, I presume you're all ready to talk?" Mosaic asked them.

"I...suppose," Hoops responded, attempting to act natural, then giving Rosy and Berry a sign to do the same.

"That's great, do you guys want to take a seat?" Peach asked in response.

"Nah, we're good," Hoops said.

Rosy didn't approve. "Hey, I didn't-" they began.

"Shh, that's not necessary," Hoops interrupted, whispering to her.

Rosy just sighed, as she preferred to express herself on matters but didn't continue on it not considering it a big deal.

"Okay, so basically, I wanted to ask you guys a couple of questions," Mosaic began. "First off, I wanted to ask you guys, umm...where did you slip off to yesterday?" he then asked. "Last I saw you guys, you said you wanted to look around Peach's castle, but you guys never attended the meeting, what were you doing?" Mosaic questioned.

Hoops was hesitant to respond as he didn't know how he should go about telling them what they were doing in a way that didn't sound off, and went with the one of the first things he thought of.

"Well umm, we sorta overheard you guys talking about the food problem the orphanage was having, so we went out to get some food to provide for them," He told them.

Upon hearing his answer, Mosaic had a bad feeling overtake him as displayed by his change in expression, then looking over at Peach, whom also looked over at him.

"I really...REALLY hope this is just a coincidence…" Mosaic whispered to Peach.

"Are you suggesting that THEY could have…" Peach began to question.

"I hope not…" Mosaic replied.

Putting it aside for the time being, Mosaic moved on to his next question.

"Okay, so now I wanted to ask you guys," Mosaic continued. "Are you guys aware that supposedly there are thieves on the loose at the moment?" he asked them.

Hoops shuddered a bit when he finished, but though nervous, responded. "N-No, we hadn't known that I believe…" Hoops replied.

"This is bad…" Mosaic whispered further to Peach.

"Should we go that route and ask that?" Peach asked.

"I feel like at this point it's the best option," Mosaic replied. "Alright well I wanted to ask," Mosaic continued, turning his attention back to Hoops, Rosy and Berry. "Did you know that these thieves stole food supposedly?" Mosaic asked them.

"R-Really!?" Hoops panickingly replied.

Seeing his reaction, Mosaic asked Hoops a question. "Hoops...where did you guys get this food?" He asked him.

"W-Well, umm...umm...we found it?" Hoops tried to answer.

Mosaic sighed in response and asked another question. "Where did you guys really get it?" he asked.

Hoops looked over at Rosy and Berry, and through facial expressions alone, they agreed that they knew what they had to tell them.

"W...We...We stole it…" Hoops hesitantly told Mosaic.

Mosaic expressed disappointment upon hearing his answer and talks it out with him. "Hoops...i know you, Rosy and Berry had wanted to get food for the orphanage, but stealing is really not the way to go in any circumstance…" Mosaic began to explain to him.

"I couldn't really think of another way considering the three of us had no money directly on us…" Hoops explained.

"Hoops, if you three had stayed behind, you'd have realized that we did come up with a solution on the food issue," Mosaic replied.

"O...Oh...you guys came up with something?" Hoops asked, a bit remorseful.

"Yeah, we're going to ask the Mushroom Kingdom's residents for food donations and state to them what our goal is regarding it,." Mosaic continued explaining.

"I...I hadn't known...We hadn't known…" Hoops replied, still feeling bad.

"Hey Mosaic, I realized something," Peach chimed in.

"What was it Peach?" Mosaic asked.

"They could still return the food if none of it's been eaten or opened," Peach explained "which it hasn't, right Hoops?" Peach then asked him.

"Oh no, I don't believe it has," Hoops replied.

"Well then it's simple, you guys just return the food and can apologize to each of the people you took the food from and promise to never do it again alright?" Peach proposed.

"If it'll get us out of trouble, I think we could do that…" Hoops replied.

"You're not going to get us in trouble right Peach?" Rosy asked.

"If you three simply return the food to their respective owners, I won't," Peach answered.

"Then this should all work out," Hoops replied. "Rosy, Berry, let's get that grub returned," Hoops told them.

"Agreed," Rosy stated, which Berry did the same in Yoshi.

 **VI: Closure**

 ** _Later that day…_**

After Hoops, Berry and Rosy had returned the food to each of their respective owners, they along with Mosaic decided to watch the current news broadcast, in which the following was broadcasted:

"This just in, the culprits of the recent thefts of local food shops have been found, the culprits were none other than three of our well known and beloved heroes, Hoops the Hoopster, Rosy the Porcopo, and Berry the Yoshi, still a baby no less," The speaker began. "It seems however that their motives held no malicious intent, though their actions were a crime, they wished to help the Mushroom Kingdom orphanage, whom has been experiencing a food shortage lately," the speaker explained.

"Oh geez, we're on the news," Hoops commented.

"Once they realized the error of their ways, the three returned all of the stolen food as it was, untouched, unopened, uneaten, so the police force, as also favored by our own Princess Peach Toadstool, agreed to not press charges against them. As they also pledged that they'd never do this again," the speaker continued.

"That's a relief," Rosy inputted.

"In others news, the proposed solution to the orphanage's food shortages has not worked all that well," The speaker continued. "The orphanage has only received two donations of food which will not cut it according to them" they continued.

Berry didn't like the sound of that based on the response in their language.

"Team S.M.B.X is looking into finding someone who can provide the necessary funds so that solving this shortage may be a success," The speaker informed. "That's all for now, tune in later for more updates on the current status on the Mushroom Orphanage and more," The speaker finished.

"Phew, nice to know that we're not going to get locked up for what happened," Hoops stated aloud.

"Yeah, I agree," Rosy added, which Berry did as well.

"While I'm as glad as you guys are that your not getting charges for this," Mosaic began. "Please, and let me emphasize this, DO NOT, GET, IN THE HABIT, OF DOING THIS KIND OF STUFF," Mosaic firmly told the three. "You guys could have easily gotten arrested if you had been caught doing any of this," Mosaic explained.

"We'll be sure on that," Rosy replied.

Berry agreed in his language shortly after Rosy's reply.

"Mosaic, there's no need to worry, I've learned my lesson at this point," Hoops began to respond. "I feel that as long as I and we all remember this day, we won't ever have a situation where any of us get arrested," Hoops stated with confidence.

"Well Hoops, be sure you stand by that…" Mosaic replied.

 _ **"**_ _ **With their problems solved, another conflict bit the dust. However, though they didn't consider**_ _ **it**_ _ **now, they still had a problem on their hands. What would they do to solve the food shortage the orphanage still had? What daring adventures or conflict would the Mosaic Group and Co. take on next? You will have all of your answers...in time.**_

 _ **Next Time...Chapter 6: Sporty Sass**_


	6. Chapter 6

" _ **It had been a couple mere days since The Mosaic Group gave the frame to Prof. E Gadd. It was morning and Mosaic and his group didn't have any plans for the day, and therefore, he made the decision of checking up on Prof. E Gadd to see how his research was going."**_

 **I: Invitational**

"Hey there E. Gadd, me and the group had nothing planned today," Mosaic stated through his phone. "So I figured today would be a good time to check...how is your research on that thing I gave you the other day going?"

"Heh, well youngster, sorry to tell you, but I have yet to make any concrete deductions on it, however, I may be on to something," E Gadd answered.

"Really? What exactly?"

"Well, that round thingamajig you and your group found appears to be rather old."

"I sorta figured that it was considering it's condition, And did you find anything else about it?"

"Didn't find much else out yet sorry to say chap."

"Ah...I understand, well, thanks for telling me how your research has been going, see you another time."

"And I'll see you another time chap, so long!"

Upon hearing his reply, Mosaic hung up.

Afterwards, Mosaic went over to his bed, and laid across it, staring at the ceiling, and began to talk among himself.

"Hmm, considering E Gadd hasn't found anything, it's 10 o'clock in the morning and nobody's bothered me either on the phone or in person, looks like I'll finally be able to relax today," Mosaic said to himself. "Yep...I'll finally be able to rest...not being bothered by anyone...absolutely no one at all…"

As Mosaic continued to ramble, he slowly closed his eyelids, enjoying the silence.

…

…

Suddenly, after just a few seconds, Mosaic's phone began to ring. Mosaic, hearing this opened his eyes back up and sighed, a bit annoyed.

"Or not…" Mosaic stated. "May as well see who it is I guess."

As such, Mosaic picked up the phone and hit the "answer" button.

"Hello?" Mosaic asked.

"Um, isssssss thissssss Mosssaic?" the voice on the other end asked.

Upon hearing the caller's voice, he recognized them immediately.

"Ah! Yes it is, hey there Glow! Haven't seen you for a couple days," Mosaic responded.

"And greetingssss to you Mossssaic," Glow replied. "Now, I wanted to ask," he continued. "Do you remember going to that place in Dinosssssaur land one time called Dino Ssssstadium?"

"Hey...I think I do recall going to a place called that one time."

"Well, assssssss it turnssssss out, they're going to be having a game over there today."

"Hm, so which sport are they going to be playing over there?"

"From what I heard, they're going to be playing ssssssoccer over there."

"I see, and who's competing?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I think we'll sssssssee a ccccertain 'familiar someone' there," Glow answered. "And I guessssss I should jussssssst get to point now," Glow continued. "Do you and the othersssssss want to go to it?"

"Huh, let me think for a second," Mosaic responded, then thinking for a bit. "You know, I think that'd be a fun activity for the four of us to go to."

"Really? Great!"

"Now, I'm gonna put you on hold to check with the others to make sure they're okay with it,"

"Of courssssssse."

After he finished the discussion, Mosaic hurried down the stairs to inform the others. When he arrived at the bottom, he saw the three in the living room, Hoops on the floor, gamepad in hand, while Rosy and Berry sat on the sofa, each holding a white game remote. The three of them were playing the Wii U.

"Hey, guys, I wanted to talk," Mosaic announced, interrupting their playing session.

Hearing his buddy, Hoops clicked the small white house shaped icon on the handheld and turned his attention over to him.

"Oh? What's it about Mosaic?" Hoops asked.

"So basically just now, a certain fire breathing friendly neighborhood reptile just gave me a call."

"You mean...Glow right?" Rosy asked.

"Yeah, him," Mosaic began to answer. "He just told me over the phone that they're going to have a soccer game at the stadium in Dinosaur Land," Mosaic explained. "And as such, that brings me to my question: do you guys want to go to it?"

"Sure why not?" both Hoops and Rosy said simultaneously.

"Jinx! You owe me-" Hoops began.

"A container of nail polish."

"Dang it…"

Berry gave his personal opinion, not sounding the most agreeable on going.

"You wanted to stay to play Mario Kart?" Rosy asked Berry, which Berry confirmed.

"Well Berry, the issue sorta is that all three of us want to go and I swear I've just been over why leaving you here alone is a bad idea," Hoops explained.

Berry, though hesitant to agree, understood him.

"And Berry, you three have been playing all morning," Mosaic began to point out. "and playing video games too much is bad for your eyes," Mosaic continued to lecture.

"Oh? When did you find that out Mosaic?" Rosy asked.

"...nothing you need to know about..." Mosaic embarrassingly responded. "But anyways Berry," Mosaic resumed. "You guys should shut that off and collect your things so we can get ready."

Berry gave a response accepting his direction.

As such Hoops shut the console off and the three began making their way over and up the stairs to get ready.

"Hey, they accepted," Mosaic started off in his return call to Glow.

"They did? That'ssssss great!"

"We should be there in about an hour," Mosaic informed. "So we'll see you there."

"Alright, I'll sssssssssssee you around," Glow replied, then hung up.

After finishing preparations, the group made their way south of the house, recalling there being a warp pipe heading to Dinosaur Land there. After a short stroll down the southern path they make it to the pipe. Just as they're about to enter, Hoops asked Mosaic a question.

"So, you sure this will take us to Donut Plains?"

"I was taken down here once by Glow when we went to this same stadium a few months ago, so it should definitely take us there."

"Oh, then what are we waiting for?" Hoops rhetorically stated, then made his way into the pipe, in which the others followed suit.

The four emerged on the other side of the pipe one by one, then observing the surrounding scenery.

The atmosphere of the area was much like that of how Mushroom Plains looked, but with a few differences. Like Mushroom Plains, it was lush and green, had ? blocks and bricks in various places high and low, and many pipes of vibrant, diverse colors. Unlike Mushroom Plains however, it also in distant spots had several sets of rolling hills and the occasional bush, lush with yoshi berries. The Mosaic Group was in the Donut Plains.

"So Mosaic, would you mind leading the way?" Hoops asked his buddy. "Me, Berry, and i'm pretty sure Rosy haven't been here too many times so I'm pretty you'd know the way better."

"To be honest, I haven't been here too many times either," Mosaic explained. "But I do remember going north after going through this pipe, so we should try going off my memory."

"Haven't you said before your memory is bad?" Hoops pointed out.

"Well, SOMETIMES it is, not all the time though."

"Fair enough."

and as such, he and the group made their way up north.

 **II: Gathering**

They traveled north for awhile, and now were not too far from the stadium. Along the way they had gotten a bag of donuts from a vender and were each munching on one of the circular pastries.

"Good that they actually had donuts here," Hoops stated.

"Oh? Why?" Mosaic asked somewhat confused.

"Because I would've made a petition to sue the people who named this place if there weren't any for false advertising."

Berry asked something in response.

"How many signatures would I have gotten? At least four."

"Uh, who would they have been from?" Mosaic asked.

"They'd of course be from you, Rosy, Berry and-"

"Hey guys, I see the stadium," Rosy interrupted. "And there seems to be a large crowd gathered there."

As such, Hoops postponed his chatter and took a look in Rosy's direction along with Mosaic and Berry. The crowd consisted mainly of Yoshis, Birdos, the occasional toad, and dinosaur-like dragon creatures.

Said creatures, like Birdos, had a lot of similarities biologically to Yoshis. they stood bipedally and generally wore shoes on their feet like them, but past that, the differences were numerous, though not to the extent of Birdos. Their underbellies were orange and striped, with their rest of their bodies being primarily blue, red, or purple in most cases. Other notable traits included their small horn, wings, and spikes that ran along their tail. Their horn and spikes were both short and pointed, and their wings were too small to fly with, and as such, these features didn't serve much purpose past aesthetic. These dinosaur-like dragons were known as Rexes.

"Would your fourth signature have been yourself?" Mosaic asked.

"Maybe…" Hoops replied.

"Figured…" Mosaic responded. "Now let's get to the stadium and see what the crowd is doing outside like this," Mosaic then continued.

As such, the four made their way over to the crowd around the stadium, once they closed their gap from them, they stopped.

They then began to survey the crowd a bit, as they did so they noticed that, to their surprise, all of Team S.M.B.X was there, and had Yoshi with them.

"Hey, Mario!" Mosaic recognizing him called out.

Mario noticed him and gave him a wave, which got the attention of the rest of the group and afterwards the Mosaic Group made their way over to them.

"So how did you guys know this was going on? Were you called about it?" Mosaic asked Mario.

"Indeed we-a were," Mario replied. "I got a call over the phone about it from-a Glow, and he filled me in on-a it," Mario began to explain. "And then I-a told Luigi about it, and then we-a called Peach and Toad about, and as I'd presume, they told-a Link about it," Mario explained.

Noticing a detail missing in his explanation, Mosaic asked a question.

"How did Yoshi find out about the game exactly?" Mosaic asked.

"It's-a funny, we hadn't actually thought about inviting him, but we-a ran into him on our way-a here, so just decide to-a bring him along," Mario explained.

"Huh, I see," Mosaic replied.

"Hmm...now I have someone to mess with…" Hoops said quietly to himself.

"What was that Hoops?" Rosy asked.

"Oh, umm...nothing…" Hoops dishonestly responded.

Yoshi then looks over, and eyes the bag Mosaic was still holding hungrily, in which Mosaic noticed.

"You want one?" Mosaic offered, taking a frosted one out of the bag and preparing to throw to him one.

Yoshi gives a sign that he does, and as such Mosaic throws him it and he catches it in his mouth.

"So...why's everyone waiting out here and not in the stadium yet?" Rosy asked.

"Well, the entrance is-a locked, and nobody here has the-a key, so we've all been waiting here for someone that has a key to come and open it," Mario answered.

"I hope someone arrives soon, we don't have all day," Peach added to the conversation.

"So here's the stadium..." someone spoke in a distant conversation

"Yeah, but what'ssssss with the large crowd there? it usually issssssssn't like thisssssss."

"Hey...are those voices who's I think they are?" Mosaic stated.

"I suppose you could say that it's quite unusual that they're...hoarding the entrance?"

"...That'sssss sssssso bad…"

"Sorry, guess i'm a bit rusty today,"

"I think it is," Rosy stated.

The group then looked in the direction they heard the voices coming from, finding that they were indeed who they thought, being Glow and Beryl.

"Glow! Beryl!" Rosy shouted to them to get their attention, in which Glow looked her direction.

"Would you look at that, it'ssssss Mosaic and the others," Glow informed Beryl, having noticed them as well.

"Hey you're right…" Beryl replied. "How did they get here before us I wonder?" Beryl then stated.

"Peculiar question," Glow responded. "But hey, let'sssss go chat with them," Glow suggested, and as such the two made their way to them. "Hey there you guyssssssss, how'ssssss it been?"

"Well, it'd say we've been-a good!" Mario started off.

"Er, minus err, umm, every-athing," Luigi inputted.

"My guess is that you've been flight over fight like usual am I right?" Beryl asked.

"I...guess-a so," Luigi responded.

"If only he knew just how 'flighty' Luigi was that day on the flagship…" Mosaic thought to himself.

"Yeah...I'd say that the Mario Brothers' accounting has been...accurate for the most part…" Peach said, tripping on her words a bit being a bit nervous around Glow herself.

"Other than the fact that we, kinda, are trying to solve a problem," Toad joined the discussion with.

"Oh? Do you mean the problem with mushroom orphanage?" Glow asked.

"...Yes actually, how'd you know?" Toad said, pausing a moment.

"Heard it from the newssssss," Glow answered.

"Oh…" Toad replied.

Link and Yoshi however didn't have many comments regarding Glow and Beryl showing up since neither knew the two much at all other than a couple instances, the crowd shortly after however then took notice of Glow and Beryl's presence and a specific yoshi called out to them.

"Hey mates! Look who it is! Glow and Beryl!" the yoshi called out, which seemed to get the crowd pumped, with them cheering.

"Does the crowd know Glow and Beryl or something?" Mosaic asked.

"I'd ask Yoshi," Peach suggested.

"Okay," Mosaic responded, then proceeding with Peach's suggestion. "Yoshi, does the crowd here know Glow and Beryl?" he asked.

Yoshi responded.

"Could someone translate?" Mosaic asked.

"He said 'I guess they do, though I haven't seen them too much'," Hoops translated.

"Ah, thanks Hoops," Mosaic replied.

"Hey Slippy, we've been waiting here awhile," The jersied Yoshi continued in reference to Glow. "Have you seen your buddy along with his feathered friend today?" The Yoshi then asked.

"Oh? Are you referring to Ssssstriker and Elemental?" Glow asked.

"I am," The yoshi answered. "I'm asking because, not only is he one of the only ones with a key, but he and his friend are basically our two key players if we want to win, being the best on our team," the yoshi continued to explain. "And I hope they get here soon, this ain't like them," the Yoshi finished.

"Yeah, i'd called this situation to be a real…'Striker', eh?" Beryl said, with the crowd finding a bit of humor in it.

"Striker...and Elemental…" Link said quietly to himself. "Isn't Striker that rex I just meant a couple months ago that seems to be practically sport obsessed?" Link then asked Mosaic.

"Yep, that's him," Mosaic replied.

"Thought so," Link reacted. "Now, about Elemental, I don't think I remember as much about her, think you can fill me in a bit on her?" Link asked.

"I think Rosy or Peach should know more than I do," Mosaic answered.

"I see," Link responded. "Rosy, what do you remember about Elemental?" he then asked her.

"Well I do know that she's an Ostro Striker befriended at some point," Rosy answered.

"Ostros? Those pink road runner creatures we've encountered in subcon time to time?" Link asked.

"I'd say they look more like ostriches, but yeah, those," Rosy replied. "But in Elemental's case I recall her feathers are black," Rosy continued.

"So we're waiting here for them to start the game huh?" Link asked.

"That, or if sssssomeone else with a key sssssuch asssssss the manager were to show up, we're waiting here in the meantime," Glow explained.

"Alright then…" Link replied.

"And Mosssssaic there'ssssss sssssssomething I wanted to tell you while I can," Glow began.

"Ah? And what was it exactly? Is it about Striker and Elemental?" Mosaic asked.

"Yeah, when the two of them show up, you and the othersssss should put away your donuts," Glow explained.

"Huh? Is there any specific reason?" Mosaic questioned.

"Well, you know how Ssssstriker is when it comessssss to junk food correct?" Glow asked.

"Oh yeah you're right!" Mosaic exclaimed, realizing it. "I'll try to remember when he gets here."

"Hey guys...I see someone...or two in the distance…" Beryl informed the crowd.

As such the crowd looked in the direction Beryl was facing, seeing that they were making their way over quickly.

"Hey...that kinda looksssss like-"

"Look out!" one of the two shouted, and such the crowd quickly made way for them.

One of the two that had arrived was a rex. Said rex had a green body and eyes shaded amber, unlike the common color of a rex. This rex in particular however was wearing an outfit, being a jersey and shorts, which were blue and yellow respectively.

This rex was also, was riding on something, or more specifically, someone.

It was a large ostrich-like bird creature. it's full body other than it's legs and beak were covered in feathers, in most cases pink, with the unfeathered parts both being yellow in color. It was an Ostro.

This wasn't just any ostro however, this one had black feathers, eyes violet as amethyst and wore a pendant with a gold chain and a mystic purple gemstone attached to it.

This Rex and Ostro were Striker and Elemental respectively.

"Elemental...you know you could have slowed down a bit, it's fortunate no one was knocked down," Striker lectured.

"Hey bud, at least our abrupt entrance is all that happened," Elemental rebutted with a bit of attitude. "And hey, I didn't use my pendent to shock them or anything like that, so that's something," Elemental continued.

"Hey regardless, their arrival was still quite...shocking, right Glow?" Beryl whispered to Glow.

"Yep…" Glow agreed.

"Hey! Looks like our top players finally made it!" The yoshi from before shouted aloud, in which the crowd reacted with a cheer.

Striker at this point had taken notice of Glow and got off of Elemental's back to greet him.

"Hey buddy! Glad to see you!" Striker eagerly shouted to him, then embracing him with a big hug.

"Irk! Ss-Sstriker, y-you're sss-sssqueezing me," Glow exclaimed.

"Oh,"-he said as he began to release his grip on him-"Sorry about that bud," Striker apologized.

"Yeah, I'd agree on that," Elemental commented.

"Oh, umm...hi there Elemental," Glow stated, blushing a bit as he said it. "Umm, why were you two late exxxactly?" he then asked.

"Oh, you know, we were just-"

"I think we should tell everyone Elemental," Striker interrupted.

"Ah okay," Elemental responded, then clearing her throat as if she was preparing a speech, then speaking loudly. "When we were on the way here, the two of us were talking on the way, and STRIKER didn't tell me what was up ahead, and I ended up getting tangled in a bunch of vines," Elemental began to explain. "And not only did my pendent get tangled up not letting me just burn the stupid thing, but Striker tried to get me out for awhile, but nothing worked…" she continued. "We then got into a debate about our situation and I was about ready to tell Striker to go find someone to help me, but then-"

"Er, how did you get out?" Beryl asked, his body converting to a purple tone.

"I was getting to that…" Elemental replied unamused. "Anyway, I was fed up with being stuck, but then someone showed up," Elemental continued. "It was some rex wearing a green robe, not to mention he was green himself…" Elemental revealed.

"That guy's about...a week and a half early for St. Fungus Day it sounds like…" Toad commented quietly.

"He asked me and Striker to close our eyes, and that he'd get me out, we did, and well, he did what claimed he would," Elemental explained.

"I'd say that's pretty accurate to what happened," Striker added. "And afterwards, he asked us for directions to Mushroom Plains, so in a way to return the favor, we told him there should be a pipe south of him that goes there, and off he went," Striker mentioned as well.

"Huh, interesting…" Mosaic responded.

"Wonder what that guy's deal was…?" Hoops wondered.

"So you just-a ran into a minor inconvenience? That explains the-a delay," Mario said.

"Yeah, it does..." Rosy stated.

The rest of Team S.M.B.X, Berry, Glow, and Beryl and the rest of the crowd then each followed with their opinions as well, saying similar things.

Striker then took notice of Team S.M.B.X and started a bit of discussion with them.

"Hey there Mario, how's it's been?" he started.

As they talked, Mosaic considered now to be a good time to hide the donuts, telling the others to do the same, but panicking, hastily hid them in his hat.

"Well, we've been doing the-a usual, you know, adventuring, fighting, making sure the-a princess isn't captured for the gazillionth time…" Mario responded.

"Hey!" Peach remarked in distaste to Mario's comment.

"We still need to be-a onlook for-a that," Mario rebutted. "For all we-a know, you could get kidnapped again in a day or-a two," Mario then explained.

"I suppose so, but still…" Peach replied.

"Speaking of, how about your other friends, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and...what's his name?" Striker asked.

"If you mean-a Link, he and the others are doing-a well too," Mario answered.

"Good to hear," Striker replied. "And you Yoshi?" Striker then asked.

Yoshi gave a response, which Striker presumed signified that he's good.

"And now we have Mosaic and his crew, what have you guys been doing?" Striker then stated, making his way over to them.

Mosaic get anxious due to what he's hiding, but begins to make conversation.

"Well...we've been doing similar things to Team S.M.B.X," Mosaic began. "We just went exploring inside this dusty, old pyramid the other day,"

"Glad to hear you and your crew have atleast been active and haven't been just cooped up indoors playing video games and eating junk food, which you haven't been doing either of the two correct?"

"Of course not…"

"That's the spirit!" Striker replied, giving Mosaic a hard slap on his head approvingly. as a result however, knocked his hat off, revealing the donut bag he was hiding, Striker noticed it and picked it up.

"Huh? What's this?" Striker asked.

"Nothing…"

"Well, it isn't nothing, it at the very least appears to be a paper bag,"

"True…"

"Huh, what's in it…" Striker stated as he began to open it.

"Wait, don't!" Mosaic said, however being too late, as he already saw the donuts inside the bag.

Seeing this, Striker didn't seem mad at Mosaic, but simply said, "You don't need these," then hurling them to a nearby trash can like a basketball.

"No, No, don- aw," Mosaic stuttered, before cutting himself off mid sentence realizing it was too late.

"Hey, it's not something to be upset over, donuts aren't good for you anyway, no nutritional value, alot of sugar…"

"Yeah...I know…" Mosaic cut him off.

"Hey Striker, you gonna open the door or what? We've been waiting," Hoops pointed out.

"Sure thing ladybug buddy, I nearly forgot," Striker replied as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a key.

"I'm not a ladybug…" Hoops stated unamused.

Either ignoring him or not hearing him, Striker then put the key into the slot and opened up the door, letting most of the people in the crowd, including Team S.M.B.X, The Mosaic Group, Glow, Beryl and Yoshi in before he and Elemental went inside the stadium themselves, so that they could finally prepare for the game.

 **III: Good, Clean Fun**

 _ **Later...**_

Striker, having prepared for the game before coming to the stadium, as he practically always had a sports outfit on, sat on a bench outside of the locker room, waiting on the rest of his team to prepare and chatted with Glow, Mosaic, Berry, Beryl, Hoops and Rosy.

"When it comes to specifics, what have you guys been doing?" Striker asked.

"Well, the other day, we found thisssss old pyramid over in sssssubcon and found thissss sssstrange artifact inssssside, asssssss Mosaic may have already mentioned," Glow explained.

"Nice stuff," Striker responded. "Do you have it right now?" Striker asked.

"Last I remembered, The Mosaic Group had it?" Beryl added.

"Actually, we gave it to this scientist or something named Prof. E. Gadd who told us he'd study it for us and get back to us on it," Mosaic explained.

"Oh...Okay…" Beryl reacted.

"Also, the day before that, we stopped another invasion from that fool Bowser," Hoops told Striker.

"Boy that guy doesn't give up does he?" Striker replied.

"Yeah...will he ever learn?" Rosy wondered.

"Maybe someday," Striker said. "But hey, even if his actions aren't exactly good-willed, you gotta respect his persistence," Striker also mentioned.

"Huh…" Mosaic responded.

"Oh, and I also forgot, just yesterday, we, or more specifically, Hoops almost got himself, me and Berry into trouble because of one of his extreme ideas," Rosy then informed.

"He did? What happened?" Striker asked.

"He tried to have us steal food to give to the Mushroom Orphanage…" Rosy replied.

"Yeah…" Hoops admittingly assured.

"The Mushroom Orphanage? You mean those guys that we're running this game for to boost the funds of?" Striker asked.

"Wait, that's why you're running the game? To boost the funds for the orphanage? And on such short notice too?" Mosaic asked.

"Yep…" Striker replied.

"Wow...if that's isn't a world record...I don't know what is…" said Mosaic in disbelief. "On another note, what's your team's name again?" Mosaic asked, changing the subject.

"Well, we call ourselves the 'Striking Dragons'" Striker answered.

"Is that because...your name is…-"

"Yesssss...I'd sssssay that'sssss obvious."

"Hey, Striker wanted to ask while on the subject," Rosy began. "Who is your team facing?" she asked.

"Well, we're facing the-"

"Attention all contestants, the opening ceremony will commence in five minutes, please make your final preparations and make your way to the field, " the loudspeaker announced.

"On second thought, you'll see whom we're facing out there," Striker instead said.

"Huh, in that case, we should catch up with the others and go where they're sitting," Mosaic stated, in which he and the others made their way to the outside of the interior and to the many rows of seats that surrounded the playing field.

 **IV: Face Off**

The Mosaic Group, Glow, and Beryl by then had found the rest of the group and took their seats alongside them, waiting for the game to begin.

As they waited, Mario decided to strike up some conversation.

"Alright you-a guys, place your-a bets now, who do you think the-a Striking Dragons are-a facing?"

"Well, it could be a team lead by Daisy," Peach answered.

"True, it-a could," Mario replied.

"Daisy? I've heard of her before, but have never met her in person as of yet," Rosy added.

"Oh, she's the-a princess of Sarasaland, a place you and the rest of the-a Mosaic Group may or may not have heard of," Mario explained. "Maybe you and the-a others should visit there some-aday," Mario added.

"Hmm...that's not a bad idea, maybe we should sometime," Mosaic responded.

"Well, I think the challengers are a team literally known as...'The Challengers'!" Beryl added.

"...If someone actually named their team that, that'd have to be one of the most uncreative names I've heard…" Link added.

"I know right…" Beryl replied.

"Y'all have zero patience, we'll hear the team name soon enough," Hoops added in sarcastically.

"Guessssssssss you're right…"

Right at that moment, a voice came in on the loudspeakers.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting! But we are now able to start the game!" A yoshi said on the loudspeaker, in which the crowd cheered in response.

"What'd I tell you?" Hoops told the group.

"I hear that you're all eager to hear who's competing in today's game, so how about we get straight to the point and introduce the competitors?" The yoshi continued, then clearing his throat.

"Here they come…" Toad stated.

"In the left corner, a team with a clear sense of dedication, passion, and most importantly, teamwork, and a team record of thirty wins, seven losses, and a single draw," The announcer continued. "give it up for...The Striking Dragons!"

As the crowd cheered, the team, consisting of Striker, Elemental, who had now dressed in blue soccer clothing, two yoshis, and behind them, a Chargin Chuck, a large, burly kind of koopa troopa whom wore white helmets with a blue and orange stripe, blue shoulder pads, red spiked cleats, and black shells, and had chubby, baby-like faces and small, squinting black eyes. All walked onto the field, waving at the crowd as they did so.

"Okay...and their opponents?" Mosaic commented.

"And now...the visitor team, carrying less experience, and not as impressive of a record, and having a rather...cocky leader and a team record of seven wins, eleven losses, and no draws...please welcome...The Gnarly Garlics!" The announcer finished.

"The Gnarly...Garlics? Wait a minute...I think I know who this is…" Mosaic began.

"Are you-a thinking who i'm-a thinking?" Mario interrupted. "Because based on that-a name…-"

"Based on that name they must call themselves the GG Gang for short?" Hoops interrupted.

Ignoring his comment, Mario continued. "Based on the-a name, I think I know it's-a got to be because I remember my-a team playing against them in the semi-finals of the-a Striker Cup,"

"The Sssssssstriker Cup? Does Sssssstriker by any chanccccce have anything to do with that name?" Glow asked.

"It-a didn't, however, I actually remember him participating in-a the cup as well," Mario responded.

"I recall that hissssssss team didn't win, but finished in the ssssssemi-finalsssssss," Glow added.

"Not only-a that...but the circumstances were-a rather peculiar as well," Mario replied.

"They were? What were they?" Mosaic asked, hearing this.

"You could-a ask Striker about it later, for now I'll save you the-a explanation of whom I recall the Gnarly Garlics are, let you-a see for your-aselves, and watch the-a Striking Dragons woop their behinds," Mario responded.

the members of the Gnarly Garlics made their way onto the field. Like Striker's team, the Gnarly Garlics had a Chargin Chuck assisting them, wearing the same gear other than the helmet having black and red stripes as opposed to blue and orange. Along with this, there was also two birdos that assisted the team as well, each of them also wearing jerseys.

And finally, there was the team leaders themselves…being just who Mario had speculated they would be...Wario and Waluigi. However, both were not dressed in their usual attire, which in a number of ways was alot like his and Luigi's of wearing overalls and an undershirt. Both were wearing a more sporty version of their regular outfits, being yellow and purple and several shades of purple respectively.

"Yep, just as I-a predicted...Wario and Waluigi…" Mario commented.

Acknowledging the crowd, Wario and Waluigi both did different actions. Waluigi waved his hands at them frantically. However, Wario acted alot more arrogantly, doing various prideful acting such as flexing and sticking two fingers up at the audience.

In general, the crowd booed the Gnarly Garlics.

"Wario...they-a...seem to hate us…" Waluigi told him.

"Who cares what the-a spectators think? Im-ma gonna win this thing and clobber these dinosaurs anyway!" Wario arrogantly responded.

"Er...We..." Waluigi reminded him.

"Am I a joke to you?" Elemental said under her breath, hearing them.

"I see no clear fan favorite today," The announcer said. "Now, may both teams get into position for the opening kickoff?"

Within several minutes, both sides had fulfilled the announcer's order. Striker and Wario went to kickoff positions as their respective teams' captains, Elemental and Waluigi further back behind the positions of Striker and Wario respectively, the Yoshis and Birdos, while still around a meter, a bit closer by on either side of their captains, and the two charging chucks guarding either goalpost, and ontop of that, the referee had made their way to field as well, being a red rex in a dark blue jersey with a whistle.

Striker and Wario, as the team captains, stepped foward, with the former already holding a soccer ball and putting it in the middle of the field before going back so the two were equal distance.

"Alright teams, on your marks," the referee began.

"Five..."

"Four…"

As the ref counted, both teams, as well as the crowd braced themselves.

"Three…"

"Two…-"

But then, at that moment, Wario ran forward and kicked the ball mid count, quickly being stopped by the ref, whom blow their whistle and chewed him out for a bit. Like the ref, the crowd also, was not amused by this.

Sighing, Mario then said, "Classic-a Wario...wants to play-a dirty before we've even began the-a game."

After both teams got back into positions, the ref started from five once again.

"Ready…"

"Five…"

"Four…"

"Three…"

"Two…"

"One…"

Afterwards, the ref blew the whistle, and as such, the game commenced with Striker making the opening kick.

"And Striker grabs the ball!" the announcer commentated.

The chase was on, Striker dribbled the ball around, dodging the members of the Gnarly Garlic's attempts to steal the ball, thanks to the passing it back and forth between himself and Elemental. though a Birdo briefly stole the ball after hitting Elemental with a red shell, a Yoshi on the Striking Dragons quickly took it back after slipping him up with a banana, then proceed to run it back to the Gnarly Garlics' goal and kicking it past the goalie despite their attempt to block it, scoring the Striking Dragons a point.

Both teams got into kickoff position once again, and Striker got the ball first again. This time however, Waluigi managed to steal it from him and began to run to the Striking Dragons' goal, however, one of the Yoshis stole it and quickly passed to Striker, whom passed to Elemental, whom managed to avoid both Wario and Birdo, but was sniped by a red shell from Waluigi by then, giving the chance to one of Birdos to snatch the ball and kick it to Wario, whom passed it to Waluigi.

However, before the ball could reach him, one of the Yoshis stole it and passed it to back to Elemental. Looking for a way to pick up her speed, Elemental looked for an item to use, and found a mushroom, which she quickly grabbed, giving her a brief speed boost and the capability to quickly zip past all attempts made to take the ball from her and kick it into the Gnarly Garlic's goal, once again getting it past the chuck, that earning them another point.

The first half of the game in general continued heavily in favor of the Striking Dragons, with the announcer continuing to commentant it. At one point during the match, Striker was about to make a kick over the Gnarly Garlics straight into the goal to earn his team another point, however Waluigi stopped the ball.

The only problem however was how he went about doing it...he stopped the ball by catching it in his hands...

The ref upon noticing this blew the whistle and shouted "Foul play!" to Waluigi, mentioning to him that he and the rest of the team knows the consequence of this, and for their team to get into their positions.

Wario, Waluigi, the two birdos on the team and the Chargin Chuck guarding the goal as such all stood in front of the goal side by side in a line.

Berry asked a question in his language.

"What was that Berry?" Mosaic asked.

"He asked why they're standing like that," Rosy answered.

"Oh, Berry, it'sssssss becausssssse ssssssince Waluigi touched the ball with hissssss handsssss, the oppossssing team, in thisssss casssse being the Ssssssstriking Dragonsssssss get a free kick, and their allowed to try to block the goal by standing in front of it" Glow told Berry.

Berry understood Glow, and continued watching.

The Striking Dragons by then had decided on having Elemental kick the goal, and she easily kicked the ball over the Gnarly Garlics, earning the team their third point.

The rest of the first half of the game then continued in a similar fashion, in which the Striking Dragons continued to curbstomp the Gnarly Garlics, scoring two more points in the process.

As a Yoshi on Striker's team was about to score a sixth point, the buzzer sounded, and the ref blew the whistle, signifying for both teams to cease their actions.

"It is now halftime!" The announcer said. "The score is now five to zero, things aren't looking too good for the Gnarly Garlics, can they make a comeback in our second half? Find out after the break and some messages from our sponsor!"

 **V: Sponsored By...**

Glow, Beryl, Hoops and Mosaic, it being halftime, took the chance to head to the snack bar and continued to discuss the game.

"Striker and his team are really getting their...points, across and showing the Gnarly Garlics what they're all about I'd say!" Beryl stated.

"Indeed they are, the Gnarly Garlicsssss better sssstep up their game if they want a chanccccce at beating them or thissss isssss going to be a defeat for them by a landsssslide!" Glow responded.

"You mean it already isn't?" Hoops added.

"Hmm...well…-"

"Hey guys, instead of talking, let's hurry up and get our snacks, I wanna see what the Mushroom Orphanage has to say," Mosaic interrupted.

As such of Mosaic's statement, the group quickly decided on buying two large popcorn and about eight drinks and made their way back to their seats where they waited.

"For our next sponsor, we have the Mushroom Orphanage," a voice said on the speakers, in which the crowd responded in awe. "It's been having a food shortage as of late. when their drive they had sadly didn't turn up many donations, they quickly looked for someone to sponsor them. Not just to further spread the word, but to raise funds so that they may support those in need and that have no place else to go," the announcer continued. "So if you paid to show up to today's game, thank you…and if you're hearing this and haven't contributed, please consider donating and making a difference today..."

"Wow...that was...quite touching from the announcer," Rosy thought to herself. "Sometimes you really do forget the big picture of things and that sometimes our backgrounds aren't so different after all..." Rosy continued. "Growing up in that kind of environment, without anyone to closely look after and care for you must be hard…I'm glad that Mosaic was able to get him out of being in that position, I can only imagine how he would have been growing up if he hadn't..."

"Huh, you seem awfully quiet Rosy…" Hoops commented.

"Oh...I was just thinking to myself," Rosy replied.

"About what? Your looks?" Hoops asked. "Wouldn't surprise me to be honest."

"Nah, something else, not that you'd care I'd imagine," Rosy responded.

"And to that you're probably right," said Hoops.

 **VI: Playing Dirty**

Meanwhile, in the Gnarly Garlics locker room, the Gnarly Garlics contemplated what their strategy should be.

"Er, Wario, what are we going to-a do? We're going to-a lose if we don't do a something," Waluigi asked.

"Eh heh heh heh," Wario laughed.

"I...don't-a like how you're-a laughing…" Waluigi responded.

"I thought something like this might have-a happened, so I came-a prepared," Wario responded.

"...What do you-a mean, and why do I-a feel like I don't want to-a know?" Waluigi thought aloud.

"These," Wario answered, showing him two sets of rollerblades, both of which looked identical to their normal shoes, other than the fact that there were wheels hidden underneath.

"Er, emm, are we-a supposed to wear those? That'd be-a cheating!" Waluigi asked.

"So what if it's-a cheating? We're in this to win this! So join-a me, unless you want to-a lose?" Wario responded.

"Eh...o-akay…" Waluigi said hesitantly, taking the pair he gave him and replacing his currently worn pair with them.

By the time this all went on, both teams had made their preparations and halftime had ended, and both were on their way back to the field.

"And that ends the messages from our sponsors!" The speaker announced. "It is now time for the second half of the match of the Striking Dragons versus the Gnarly Garlics! The score at the moment is five to zero, Striking Dragons five, Gnarly Garlics zero, clearly the Striking Dragons have started off with a tremendous lead, however, can the Gnarly Garlics turn it around? Find out now in the kickoff in, three...two...one…play ball!" The announcer finished, with the ref blowing the whistle.

Wario, thanks in part due to the rollerblades hidden under his shoes get off an early lead, getting the ball at the kickoff and passing it to a Birdo. Like they had done in the first half, the Striking Dragons were already acting to retrieve the ball, with a Yoshi on the Birdo's tail, however, Waluigi signaled the Birdo to give him the ball, which the Birdo managed to kick to him accordingly.

After obtaining it, he hurried for the goal, Elemental nearly stole the ball, but Waluigi quickly zipped around her because of his rollerblades, to her shock, then continuing over to the goal, which the Chargin Chuck was guarding, however, with a swift and carefully maneuvered kick, Waluigi got the ball past him, giving his team the point.

"And that's the first goal made by the Gnarly Garlics!" the announced declared, with the announcer however not giving much of a reaction, and for the most part, booing this fact.

After reassembling for the next kickoff, once again the Gnarly Garlics got the ball, and it seemed that once again, they seemed to be doing really well. A birdo got the ball, and then passed it to Wario, whom passed it to Waluigi, whom passed it to the other Birdo, though a Yoshi tried to stop Waluigi's pass to the Birdo, he fell on a banana peel placed on the ground by a Birdo earlier allowing the Birdo to receive the ball and dribble it about, only for them to get the ball stolen by the other Yoshi, whom saw Striker giving him a signal that he's open, and gave a pass, however, as the ball was on the way to him, Wario slid in front of him, snatching the ball from under his nose, to Striker shock of him grabbing it so quickly.

Wario then ran the ball to the goal again, and gave it a hard kick.

Somehow...someway, he didn't hit the goal, but hit the Chargin Chuck acting as the goalie right in the forehead, dazing him.

In part due to this, he moved away from the goal for a bit, which Wario used as a chance to score the Gnarly Garlics their second goal.

"Oh my stars! I can't believe this! The Gnarly Garlics are starting to make a comeback and have made the score five to two! Will they keep it up? Or will the Striking Dragons defend their position?" the Yoshi announced stated.

"Wait, what in...how was Wario not signaled out by the ref?" Rosy asked.

"Well...unfortunately, that thing that Wario just-a did...it is-a completely legal…" Mario explained.

"...It's allowed?" Rosy continued to question.

"Yeah, while we don't-a see it often, there isn't technically any-a rules against doing that in a match, seen it a couple-a of other times in the games I've participated-a in..." Mario explained.

"...I seriously don't think that should be okay," Rosy opinionated.

After next kickoff, in which Striker managed to get the ball this time around, he passed it around between himself and a Yoshi on the team, for once managing to dodge the Gnarly Garlics' attempts to take the ball, but though they try to make a kick into the goal, they miss the mark and the goalie blocks the ball, then giving it a nearby Birdo, who began to dribble it, passing it to another Birdo, whom passed it to Waluigi, Waluigi however noticed a green shell coming his way and quickly gave it Wario, whom, noticing a mushroom on the ground, got a sneaky idea, like he typically did. He dribbled the ball about, and carefully using the rollerblades, slid towards the mushroom and grabbed it, boosting his speed, allowing him to quickly make his way towards the goal, in which he seemed to have something prepared.

"Why'd he stop?" Link asked.

"You'll sssssssee, he'ssssss up to ssssssomething," Glow answered.

Glow was right, Wario had begun dribbling the soccer a bunch really frantically between his feet until seemingly...electricity? Seemed to surround the soccer ball, in which he then jumped into the air and gave it a hard kick, sending the ball flying towards the goal practically like a meteor, making a yellow trail behind it.

The goalie was unable to block it, and it zipped right past them and into the goal, scoring the Gnarly Garlics not one, but TWO points as a result.

"This...this is insane!" The announcer began to say. "This is blasphemy! this is madness! this...is...incredible!" the announced then continued. "The Gnarly Garlics are making a comeback big time! If they keep this up, i'm afraid to say that the Striking Dragons may have to admit defeat here!"

"Hmm...something about the Gnarly Onions seems suspicious to me…" Hoops stated.

"Er, aren't they called the Gnarly Garlicssssssss?" Glow asked.

"Yes, they are."

Glow, hearing his answer, just didn't question it.

"Clearly, with seven mintues still left on the clock, it is still anyone's game here! So let's all see how the remainder of this game pans out!" the announcer said.

Before everyone knew it, it was back to the action, the Striking Dragons had an early lead having grabbed the ball at the kickoff, however, Waluigi managed to get his hands on a starman, thanks to his period of invincibility, he easily stole the ball from Striker and ran it to the Striking Dragons' goal and kicked it toward the goal, however, the ball being caught by the goalie and thrown to a Yoshi.

This was however was short-lived as not too long after, a Birdo managed to steal the ball from the Yoshi after throwing a red shell his way, picking up the ball underfoot, and quickly passing it to the other Birdo, who made another shot for the goal, getting it that time around.

"And with that the score is tied! It truly seems that with this, the Gnarly Garlics could make a comeback after all!" the announcer declared.

"Who's side is the announcer on anyway? They're not really making it easy to tell..." Toad stated.

Kickoff commenced, the ball was gotten by Wario, whom passed it to a Birdo, however, before said Birdo could get far, the ball was taken from them by a Yoshi who dribbled it for a bit and was able to maneuver around the Gnarly Garlics, but before he could make the goal, he was hit by a green shell from Waluigi, which gave the Birdo the chance to grab it and pass it to Wario. Wario, seeing the goal not too far from him, kicked it into the air, Elemental was the only one on her team near the goal at that given moment, and in panic about the Gnarly Garlics gaining the lead, without thinking, she caught the ball...with her wings.

"No…she didn't..." Striker said as he facepalmed.

"Elemental...you know what happens now…into position with the rest of your team," The ref told them.

"Oh-a no! Oh-a no! OH-A NO! Why-a now? Why-a now? Why so-a close to the game-sa' end when they're's-a only..."-Luigi began as he then checked how much time remained of the game-"less than a-a minute of the-a game remaining!?"

Glow sighed, then said, "That'ssssssss her for you...she doessssss have a tendenccccccccy to be the carelessssssssssss kind…"

"hopefully this doesn't cost Striker and his team the game…" Peach said.

Like the Gnarly Garlics did earlier, the five members of Striker's team all stood side by side to guard the goal.

Wario stepped forward to give the ball a kick, hitting it hard, right past the Striking Dragons, scoring themselves their sixth goal.

"And with that, in an unexpected turn of events, The Gnarly Garlics have gained the lead!" the announced declared. "With only forty-seven seconds left on the clock, will the Striking Dragons have to chance to turn this around? Or will the Gnarly Garlics take home the gold despite the Striking Dragons' initial lead? Find out here and now!"

"Announcer...while I think you're on our side, you're not doing a good job showing that…" Toad commented.

Both teams got into positions for presumably the last time, before Striker made a statement.

"Timeout!" Striker told the ref.

"Huh, okay…" the ref responded, seemingly very accepting of him doing so.

"Eh? Lizard wants a-a break?" Wario questioned. "Agh, make it-a quick…"

"Okay guys, we need to discuss things for a second," Striker told the others getting them into a circle along with their goalie.

"Umm...Striker, is this...about my mistake?" Elemental asked, not really willing to hear the answer.

"Well...somewhat," Striker replied. "Elemental...I hate to say it, but your mistake, maybe, kinda, sorta, may cost the game."

"Oh...if it does...sorry…" Elemental replied.

"It's alright if it does, even though it's kinda a bummer if we lose," Striker responded. "So basically, considering how little time is left on the clock, i'm realizing if we want to beat the Gnarly Radishes-"

"The Gnarly Garlics?" a Yoshi on the team asked.

"Oh, yeah, forgot their name," Striker answered. "The Gnarly Garlics, there's something we're going to have to do that's a tad bit crazy."

"Which is bud?" the Chargin Chuck asked.

"If we're going to win and not just draw with them, I'm going to have to make...a superstar kick into the goal...and not miss it," Striker explained.

"In under a minute...because we'll totally make that in that amount of time…" Elemental, said, not so amusingly.

"Well...do you have any other ideas?" Striker asked Elemental.

"Well...no…not really..." Elemental responded.

The other members of the team shook their heads as well.

"Then that's the plan we're taking, ready?" Striker asked them.

Each member of the team gave their response, each signifying that they were.

"Are you all-a done holding hands around the campfire and ready to lose?" Wario impatiently asked.

"Right back atcha, and yes...I'd say we are…" Elemental responded.

"Then get-a over here…" Wario demanded.

The Striking Dragons did just that, and prepared for real for the final kickoff. The ref blew the whistle, and Striker managed to get the ball and began dribbling it, then seeing a mushroom on the ground, allowing him to quickly out run the Gnarly Garlics. He then passed it back and forth between himself and a Yoshi to throw them off and so that they couldn't get the ball.

"This match is already-a over," Wario stated, starting to skate over to the two of them in an attempt to snatch the ball away.

"Oh no you don't…" Elemental stated, quickly looking around the field for a question mark printed cube containing a red or green shell, being lucky enough to find a red one on just the first cube. As such she hurled it Wario's way, causing him to fall down.

"Thirty seconds remain! It looks like the Striking Dragons could turn this around, but now the question is, 'Will they succeed'?" The announced narrated.

"What are you-a doing you nitwits? Stop them!" Wario shouted at his team members.

Before he even finished, they were already on their way to them to stop them from making the goal.

Despite that however, Striker and the Yoshi had made it in range of the goal. The Yoshi was about to pass to Striker so that they could go through with their plan, but before he could, a green shell came flying his way, causing him to drop the ball and knocking him down.

"Twenty-three seconds…" Mosaic thought to himself as he looked at the clock.

Striker rushed to grab the ball which had begun to roll to the corner of the field, however, under circumstances unbeknownst to him, Waluigi had managed to swipe it before him and had made a u-turn back to the opposing side of the field.

"Fifteen seconds remaining…" Rosy thought.

"We only have fifteen seconds left to play and Waluigi has the ball...face it Elemental, we've lost…" one of the Yoshis on the team said.

"Not if I can help it!" Elemental responded, opening another cube and finding banana peels inside.

She then threw them in the pathway of Waluigi, who, not seeing them, tripped over them and dropped the ball.

"Ten seconds remaining!" the announcer said. "Say it with me!"

"Ten!" the audience began to follow through.

"Nine!"

Elemental by then had gotten the ball and quickly passed it Striker.

"Eight!"

"Striker! Quickly! Wario and his team are gaining!" Elemental told him.

"Seven!"

"Six!"

Striker quickly ran in front of the goal and began, like Wario earlier, quickly dribbling the ball into the air, until sparks began emitting from it and a green aura surrounded it.

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

Realizing it was now or never, Striker made a jump for the ball and gave it his best shot. He gave the ball one last kick, and hoped for the best.

Missing by only an inch...the ball...slipped right past the goalie, and into the goal.

"One!"

And with that one action, despite it all, the Striking Dragons had ended the game with a score of them seven, Gnarly Garlics six.

"I can't believe it! I don't know how they keep pulling it off, but the Striking Dragons have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!" the announcer declared, in which in response, the audience cheered.

Unhappy with this, Wario and Waluigi begin to have a temper tantrum of sorts.

"Oh come-a on!" Waluigi stated.

"...they don't seem too happy about losing…" Link commented.

"Well...that's-a classic Wario Bros for-a you...don't-a know how to have good sportsmanship and accept an-a lose…" Mario replied.

"Either way, glad to see the Striking Dragons were able to clutch the win despite the odds being against them," Mosaic said, giving his thoughts.

"Yeah, agreed," Rosy added.

"Eh, that's what these fools get, mess with the Bully, you get the horns, or in this case, mess with the Rex," Hoops said.

 **VII: Despite It All**

With the game over, the teams assembled in position for the closing ceremony, in which a distributor, the announcer, and a cameratoad had showed up to the center of the field.

After a speech from a yoshi dressed in a formal matter thanking both teams for giving the audience a great game and the like, he announced it being time to hand out the awards, he afterwards came down from the steps he stood on to give the Striking Dragons their ribbons, each of them having a golden shade and bold W imprinted on them.

"And here are some ribbons for you," The Yoshi said, speaking to the Gnarly Garlics, handing each of them one.

"Eh?" Wario responded, shocked.

"Looks like we-a aren't leaving empty handed after-" Waluigi stated, then stopping when he realized the ribbons had a P imprinted, were smaller in size, and blue in color. "Oh...participation awards…"

"Now, this is only a formality at this point, but Striker, Wario, please step forward and face one another," the Yoshi then stated.

Striker accepted it just fine, but Wario was more resilient to doing so.

"What are they doing now?" Link asked Glow.

"Oh, it'sssss a formality that we have after each game here, we have both of the team leaderssssss, or in thissssss casssssse, captainssssss shake handsssss to show that they have no hard feelingsssss about the outcome and had a good time," Glow explained to him.

"Ah, makes sense…" Link replied.

Begrudgingly, Wario complied with the wishes of the distributor and announcer and began to make his way over to Striker, but not thinking, forgot about the rollerblades on his shoes and slipped, exposing the bottom of his shoes in front of the camera, therefore broadcasting it to the audience, in which they gasped in response to what they saw.

"Yep! I called that something was up!" Hoops shouted aloud.

"Hey, you okay?" Striker asked Wario, about to help him up.

"Wait a minute...Striker, something is off about his shoes, let me take a look," Elemental commented.

"Oh, sure thing."

"So Wario, what are those things on your shoes?" Elemental asked.

Wario only stuttered in response.

"They seem to be small wheels. Oh wait, they are."

"Wario..." The Yoshi that had been making announcements stated. "rollerblades are a big no-no here, you know better than to bring something like that along for how much your team has played here. Since you didn't win however, that'll save you the embarrassment of being confiscated of a victory award like another time. However, I'll be confiscating your participation awards instead."

"Meh, whatever," Wario responded.

"And furthermore, as soon as i'm done with announcements, go to the locker room and gather your things, you're suspended from playing any games on Dino Stadium for the next three months to think about what you did and maybe think twice before doing it again."

"What!?" Wario replied, not amused.

"I apologize for the interruption," the Yoshi then began. "but to continue, overall, despite it turning out one of our teams weren't playing in an exactly honorable way, this game turned out to be quite the exciting experience, don't you all agree?"

The audience shouted in agreement.

"Well, with all of that said and done, that ends tonight's game, the exit is to your right, stay safe, and have a good night!" the Yoshi then finished, in which afterwards the crowd began to empty from the stands.

 **VIII: Separate Ways**

By the time the game had ended and everyone was on their way out of the stadium, it had been six o'clock at night. Team S.M.B.X, The Mosaic Group, Yoshi, Glow, Beryl, Striker and Elemental had gathered outside of the stadium to discuss what their plans were for tonight, as well as tomorrow.

"So, you, Elemental, Glow and Beryl are planning to stay here for some aftergame practice?" Mosaic asked Striker.

"That's the idea," Striker answered.

"Well, stay safe, and don't stay out for too long," Rosy advised them. "And also, Beryl."

"Yeah Rosy?" Beryl asked.

"You so missed a chance at a pun after what the announcer said at the end of the game," she explained.

"Oh, really?" Beryl responded, starting to turn a purplish tone. "What could I have said?"

"Well...I'll let you think about that one," Rosy answered.

"Huh...okay…" Beryl replied.

"Well, what plansssssss do you and the ressssst have Mario?" Glow asked.

"Well, me and-a Luigi are probably going to an-a italian restaurant for dinner," Mario answered.

"Hey, how about that new buffet that opened up instead? They have italian food there too," Mosaic suggested.

"Hmm, not a-a bad idea," Mario responded.

"I think Striker, Elemental, Beryl and Glow could come along too since they still need to eat, how about it?" Peach asked.

"Sure thing, we'd be cool with that, and then we can get to our practice right after," Striker responded.

"How about your guys' plans afterwards?" Elemental asked.

"Me and Luigi are probably gonna head-a home," Mario answered.

"Thank-a you…" Luigi commented.

"Me and Toad are going to head back to the castle so that we can figure out what we should do next for the orphanage," Peach inputted.

"Umm...I wasn't planning on doing that…" Toad retorted.

"Sorry Toad, but that's what's going to happen," Peach responded.

"I'm thinking that after dinner, me and the group could go out for a movie night to see that movie that just came out based off that comic book character 'Iron-Shroom'," Mosaic informed.

"Sounds like a plan," Hoops said.

"Indeed that does," Rosy agreed.

Speaking his language, Berry too agreed.

"I personally...am probably going to go for a nightly scroll, kinda see if I can clear what's on my mind a bit," Link informed.

"Oh? What would that be?" Mosaic asked.

"Maybe I could tell you later," Link answered, "but yeah, that's what i'm probably going to do."

"So it's-a settled, after we eat at the-a local buffet, we can all go our seperate ways, let's-a go! To the buffet!" Mario said, then leading the way.

As they made their way over, Mosaic made a small comment.

"I wonder if I'll ever catch a break…"

"Eventually I presume Mosaic...eventually," Hoops answered.

" _ **As the eccentric bunch had intended, after filling themselves at the buffet, each went their separate ways for the night, Mario and Luigi back home, Peach and Toad to the castle, Beryl, Striker, Glow and Elemental to practice, the Mosaic Group on their movie night, and Link on his stroll.**_

…

…

…

 _ **The Mosaic group hadn't known it then, but Link's stroll wasn't going to be the uneventful endeavor he expected it to be, and not only would they get an idea of what he had on his mind, but they would meet quite an...interesting acquaintance of his. to say the least..."**_

 _ **.Next Time...Chapter 7: Psyched**_


	7. Chapter 7

**I: Night Signal**

" _ **After the group all partook in their night activities, they made**_ _ **their**_ _**ways back to the places in which they dwelled to rest their bodies, and dreamed along with such. However, in the darkness, when the shining circle of light which they called the sun was invisible to sight**_ _ **,**_ _**leaving nothing but darkness over the land, the Mosaic group specifically, though unaware, would receive a signal from one of their peers, a night signal one might call it."**_

The time had been midnight, just earlier being when Striker and Elemental had their game against the Gnarly Garlics, winning as a result. After the rest of the group had gotten back from their movie night, when they got home, they had all gone straight to bed and while asleep, dreamed.

In the middle of Mosaic's dream however, his phone suddenly began to ring, waking him up.

"Who's calling me at a time like this?" Mosaic wondered, somewhat annoyed. However, regardless of such, he picked up the phone and answered it.

"Hello?" Mosaic asked.

"...Hello?" The person on the other end asked.

Mosaic upon hearing this recognized the voice immediately.

"...oh...hey there Link, I was sorta in the middle of a dream…"

"Oh, um...sorry, what was it about?"

"It's kinda odd...I was like...in a courtroom, wearing a blue business suit with a red tie, like a lawyer or something. But anyway, what were you calling me about? Are you going to tell me you want me to go exploring with you? Like you always do?"

"Well...Yeah...I was...the reason is also well...I found something kinda intriguing that you'd maybe find interest in too. So I was thinking of talking with you about it in more detail at Vibrant Park perhaps?"

"Oh yeah...the two of us alone in a park at night...sounds like a great idea…"

"Well...if you don't want to come alone, you could bring the group along,"

Letting out a sigh, Mosaic responded, "Eh, I'll just come by myself I guess. Not a need to bother them right now…"

"Well, alright, see you when you arrive I suppose," Link responded, then hanging up.

After their phone conversation had ended, Mosaic opened the closet, getting out a set of his regular clothing as he was wearing his pajamas at the moment and wanted to change into a more appropriate attire.

However, among all the ruckus, Hoops was woken up by all of the noise and noticed Mosaic changing.

"E-Er umm Mosaic…" Hoops asked, yawning while doing so. "Why are you up at this time? Are you trying to late night game again?"

Noticing him, Mosaic gave a response.

"Oh, sorry Hoops," Mosaic stated. "Also, nah, for some reason Link asked me to meet with him at Vibrant Park."

"Is he really asking you to meet with him right now?"

"Yep...he is...that's why i'm changing clothes right now…"

"Know what? I'll come with you, not only is it safer to do so, but, you know what they say,-"

"The more the merrier right?"

"Umm...yeah…also, I'll hold the 3D glasses this time, ready to go?"

"Pretty much, let's get out of here."

On the two's way down the hall and to the stairs to the bottom floor, Mosaic looked over to Rosy and Berry's room, wondering if he should bring them along with them.

Only to decide after some thought against it in part due to their age.

When the two made it to the bottom of the stairs, they discussed things a bit more.

"So, what exactly is it that Link was wanting to talk with you about?" Hoops asked.

"Kinda odd, he simply told me he found something 'intriguing' and left it at that."

"Huh, so he's being vague…not really surprising as he is kinda a quiet person in general…"

"Yeah, but I imagine he'll probably tell us whe-"

"Wait, I hear a noise, someone's coming down the stairs."

This exact someone that the two heard coming down the stairs was Rosy, whom was woken up from overhearing their discussion.

"Hey Hoops and Mosaic, what are you guys doing up at this time talking to each other?" She asked them.

"...don't copy me, I just said that..."

"Well, basically, Link wants to see us in the park to show us something 'intriguing'."

"Huh, well, I somewhat am curious myself about what Link wants to show us at a time such as this, so I'll come along too."

"I'm...seeing a pattern here…" Mosaic commented.

Right after he said it in fact, someone else was coming down the stairs, this of course being Berry.

Berry then asked something in Yoshi.

"That's exactly what me and Rosy asked…" Hoops replied, understanding him.

Speechless, Mosaic decided to just explain.

"Well Berry, as i've already told Hoops and Rosy about, we're taking a trip to Vibrant Park since Link wants us to meet with him there for some reason."

Berry then asked another thing.

"He asked if he could come along," Rosy translated to Mosaic.

Mosaic thought about it for a while, and realized it was somewhat a lose lose situation at this point as it was either have a seven-year old up past midnight or leave them home alone, AT MIDNIGHT.

As such, he decided on what he considered the less of the two evils.

"Yeah, I suppose you can Berry."

Berry in response gave an exciteful hop and waddled closer to them.

"Hmm, maybe since all four of us are going out to the park to meet with Link, I could ask Mario and Luigi if they want to come with us," Mosaic had the idea of, then picking up the phone and dialing it.

 _ **At**_ **Mario & Luigi's Pad…**

The two brothers had been asleep, but then Mario heard the phone, saw it was Mosaic and picked it up.

"Hello? Mario?"

"Mosaic, I'm going to be-a blunt, I'm not-a interested in whatever you have to-a tell at this late of a time, and will remind-a you to not bother me about things past eleven," Mario responded, then hanging up.

The noise then woke up Luigi.

"Brother? Who were you-a talking to?" he asked.

"Oh, umm, Mosaic..." Mario responded.

"Hmm, I had a feeling that was the-a case…"

 _ **Back at the Mosaic Group's House**_ …

"You know what...I'm going to just take that as a sign that we shouldn't even bother Peach or Toad and just head to the park," Mosaic stated.

"He wasn't interested was he?" Hoops asked.

"Not a bit," Mosaic replied. "Now, to the park we go," Mosaic stated, then heading out the door with the rest of the group.

 **II: Link in Park**

The Mosaic Group made it to Vibrant Park and began to scout the park looking for Link.

After looking around for a while, they see him sitting on a bench in the park, waving to them. Once they make eye contact with him, he signaled for them to come over, which they did so and began to make conversation.

"Hey there Mosaic, I see you ended up bringing the group…" Link began.

"Yeah, it ended up turning out that way," Mosaic began. "So...what did you find?"

"Well, may as well get to that," Link said, then digging into one of the pockets of his tunic and then taking it out. "What I found is a treasure map, and based on what it says, the treasure should be buried in Toadstool Valley."

"Hmm, okay, I have two questions," Mosaic began. "First off, where did you find this map? And second off, did you have to call us out here now? Why couldn't this have been saved for morning?"

"Hey, I can answer the second question, he did it to annoy us," Hoops sarcastically inputted.

"Not exactly…" Link answered. "To answer the first question, after I had finished my stroll, at that point, the place I've been staying was very far from where I was, so I figured it'd be better to just sleep on the branch of a tree," Link began to explain. "But then just when I was about to go to sleep, some kind of scroll was thrown at me from afar, which woke me up."

"And I'm assuming this was the map?" Mosaic asked.

"Correct."

"Huh, so I'm guessing something about the map is something that you considered urgent?" Mosaic asked.

"The answer is...yes, and no…" Link responded. "Take a look," he then said, handing it to the group.

The group examined the details on the map, on this map was a vague sketch of the Mushroom Plains and a vague path leading to Toadstool Valley. This wasn't the most notable detail however, the most notable one was the message on it, which read, "Listen here, we're going to this area tonight, right here right now, do it now, or we may miss our chance."

Each of the Mosaic Group gave their thoughts on the map.

Berry gave an "ooo" in Yoshi.

"Interesting," Mosaic inputted.

"Wonder why that's written on the map…" Rosy thought aloud.

"Hmm, I have a really vague, faint idea as to why it's written, but I doubt it's the case, so don't worry about it," Hoops added.

"Well if that message was printed on there, I guess we don't have much of a choice but to go find it, and as there's safety in numbers with the five of us going there, we may as well," Mosaic declared to the group.

"Well, the only issue is that we lack a light source," Link pointed out.

"Well, if Beryl was around, we could set him on fi-"

"You made that joke the other day Hoops," Rosy interrupted.

"I didn't ask you, but eh…" Hoops responded.

"Speaking of fire, I feel all we'd probably need is a fire flower since Mario, Glow and Elemental aren't around at the moment to make a fire for us, and on top of that, Striker, while capable of making one, isn't able to really unless someone got him to a certain point," Mosaic continued.

"And obviously we aren't going to ask Bowser for help either," Rosy added.

"You know Mosaic, if you knew someone that hung around you as much as me, Berry and...Rosy did that had fiery abilities naturally, without the need of a power-up or anything, situations like this would never be an issue, that'd be pretty cool wouldn't it?" Hoops mentioned to Mosaic.

"It indeed would be cool if something like that were to happen, but I dunno...I think it could eventually…"

"So, my idea is that we search this park for a fire flower, see if we can find it here," Link explained. "Mosaic, Hoops, you guys should look in the west half. Rosy, Berry, you guys look in the east half." Link assigned. "I'll start by shooting this question block right here above me," Link said, then shooting the block.

To his surprise, this exact block had...a fire flower…

"...well...nevermind...there's one…" Link said, kinda embarrassed that he said all of the elaborate stuff he did.

"That was easy…" Mosaic commented.

"Indeed it was," Rosy commented afterwards.

"So the only question now is, who's going to grab it?" Mosaic then questioned.

"Perhaps we should throw someone up to it, someone such as Hoops, Rosy or Berry I'd think?" Link suggested.

"Rosy has quills...sharp ones, throwing her isn't really a good idea as we'd have to scoop her from the bottom and throw her carefully ontop of that, doesn't really work," Mosaic began. "I don't think we'd want to throw Berry up there either, he's not really used to using power-ups and I don't feel comfortable with throwing him up there," he continued.

"So I guess that leaves...Hoops As the best option..." Rosy deduced.

"Okay, sure thing, pick me up Mosaic, and on the count of three, throw," Hoops inputted in acceptance.

As such, Mosaic picked Hoops up, and carefully aimed at the fire flower and got ready to throw.

"Alright, so again, on my count, throw," Hoops stated.

"Okay…" Mosaic responded.

"Alright, one...two...and...throw!" Hoops counted, then shouted in which Mosaic then hurled him at the fire flower.

He went flying through the air towards the power-up, and would have gotten it, only for him to not...this being because of him crashing into none other than an...invisible note block...containing a springboard…

After hitting it, both himself and the springboard fell back to the ground, Hoops himself being dazed from the impact.

The rest of the group found embarrassment in the situation and all gave a collective facepalm.

"I'll grab it…" Mosaic then informed, hopping on the springboard, bouncing off it and touching the fire flower.

Mosaic's clothes as a result of it changed colors. rather than their normal green-gold appearance, they instead had shades of red and orange take their place. Why this happened to one's clothing when they grabbed certain kinds of power-ups such as fire flowers, wasn't exactly clear, but it was the case.

After grabbing the flower, Mosaic made his way off the springboard and over to the dazed insect to check that he was fine.

"Er, umm, you okay buddy?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah…" Hoops replied, still coming back to his senses.

"Well in that case,"-Mosaic stated as he started forming a fireball in his hand and keeping it lit- "Link, lead the way, where do we go from here?"

"From here...I'd say north…" Link responded. "So, away we go," he then stated, heading north and the rest of the group following the way he led them.

 **III: Treasure Tracks**

 _ **Later...**_

After Link led the Mosaic group for around an hour or two, they all eventually arrived at their destination, Toadstool Valley.

"So, are we getting close to the destination Link?" Hoops asked.

"Well, according to the way that the map is marked, I'd say we are," Link informed in response. "and only have about...let's say about sixity more meters to go before we make it to the exact spot."

"Well, hopely…" Hoops stated, a tad bit pessimistic.

"I trust Link's words personally as he's always been good at investigating based on clues or guidance and following instructions, so I wouldn't worry about it Hoops," Rosy told him.

"True…" Hoops replied.

As the group continued, Mosaic spoke up.

"While we're still on our way to the spot, why don't we all chat for a bit?" Mosaic suggested.

"Sure, why not?" Hoops replied.

"No harm in conversation," Link commented.

"Well, what should we talk about?" Rosy asked.

"As long as it's not about your looks, I'm game," Hoops answered.

"Well, in that case, why don't we talk about-"

But at that moment, the group, who had been walking underneath an arch of stone and a lot of rocks both heard and felt the ground shake.

"I...don't like that sudden shaking…" Hoops commented.

Berry, in reaction to the noise, got next to Rosy for comfort, of course, being scared by it as well.

"I think personally we should continue as we're getting close to the destination as Link has already told us, correct Link?" Mosaic stated.

"Correct, I say we keep moving," Link responded.

As the group continued however, they heard the ground tremor again.

"T-there it is again…" Hoops stated.

The group looked up, and noticed small crumbles falling from the arch above them.

"And...t-there's crumbles coming from the arch above us on top of that…" Hoops continued.

"That is a bit worrisome…" Mosaic stated.

Link, in an attempt to ease the group's worries, stated, "Well, as long as none of the rocks fall, we should have nothing to-"

Only to be interrupted when a large rock fell right in front of them.

"...Forget everything that I said, run!" he then exclaimed, with the group then rushing in a panic.

As they rushed, countless boulders rained from above all around them, with the group barely avoiding many of them.

"There's too many of them! Maybe we can break them somehow?" Hoops suggested.

"Listen Hoops, you can't break them, Rosy can't break them, Mosaic's fire nor iceballs will break them, and I know Berry can't break them and there's not enough time for me to risk getting a bomb out right now, all we can do is run and dodge theses rocks however we can."

"...Oh no! Not a dead end!" Rosy said aloud, getting the group's attention.

"I even had a feeling we should have gone the other path…" Mosaic stated.

The group looked up dreadfully at the approaching rocks, seeing a number of them right above them.

"Welp...it's been a good life…" Hoops stated.

After Hoops made his statement, everyone closed their eyes and covered themselves with their arms, bracing themselves for the impact…

…

However, the impact never came...

"Huh? The rocks...they stopped…" Rosy noticed.

The rocks indeed had stopped and were veiled in some kind of blue aura of sorts. And shortly after Rosy's statement, the rocks were all tossed aside, away from being any kind of danger to the group.

"Good, now I have you and the others' attention...Link…" a voice then stated.

Hearing this, the group looks in the direction of the voice, seeing that it came from behind a bit above themselves, in which a being stood.

"It's...It's you…" Link commented.

The being in question was large and round, more of an oval shape in a way, they lacked limbs of any kind and had a gelatinous, squishy, sticky body, and finally, a pair of dually colored eyes, one green, and one pink. While their species usually had pearly white eyes as opposed to these and had a body that was blue in appearance, this member of the species' body however was a much, much darker shade of blue, and on top of this, they bore a star-shaped birthmark on their forehead. The said being in question was a Boss Bot.

"Never thought I'd be able to do that at the pace that this story was going, and yeah Link, it is me," The Boss Bot stated.

"Midnight, I have so many questions," Link stated, calling him by his name. "But I'll save asking you all of them and just ask, how did you know we were out here?"

"Well, what brought you out here? Was it a map?" Midnight asked him.

"Wha…" Link responded, being surprised at that being his first question. "Y-Yeah, it was…"

"Well that explains everything."

"What do you mean Midnight?" Mosaic asked. "But uh yeah, long time no see as I never got the chance to greet you."

"I'll explain now," Midnight responded.

 **IV: A...Trap?**

"Basically, while I was at Moonlight Meadows, I found an interesting discovery, and I wanted Link to know about it," Midnight explained.

"But how does that explain the ma-" Link began to ask.

"Dear Hylia you're impatient, I'm getting to that," Midnight responded. "Anyway, so that I was able to get Link into a place that we could meet, I made a fake map, wrote a compelling message on it and then gave it to Link."

"Wait...WHAT!? T-that was you!? A-and that map...it...it was a fake?!" Link began to mouth off, shocked at this information.

"Yes and yes, and with how much I know you love exploring, I knew you couldn't resist."

"I guess that explains that," Rosy inputted. "But why did you essentially 'ask' him to meet with you so late at night instead of asking about it earlier in the day, or even tomorrow instead?"

"You know of that ability I have Rosy."

"Umm, I don't know...or just don't remember more accurately…"

"I believe that when Midnight has exposure to moonlight, it heals his injuries," Link informed.

"Oh yeah, that ability. Makes sense," Rosy responded.

"Another thing I realized is that considering Midnight's size and mass," Hoops began. "Midnight, was that you making the tremors earlier?"

"Yes."

"Wait, then why'd you let those rocks fall on and almost crush us earlier?"

"To get your attention."

"Hmm, fair."

"So, if the map was fake and you talked about discovering something 'interesting', does this mean you know where the actual location is?" Link asked.

"Yes, and as I said, it's in Moonlight Meadows," Midnight answered.

"Well can you lead us to it?" Link asked.

"I would have done that anyway even if you hadn't asked, but sure, whatever," he responded. "So Mosaic, I guess you could say it's time to...pass the torch," he said, making a pun on him having a fire power-up.

"I mean, to be fair, the one leading the way was Link, not-"

"Hey, aren't puns Beryl's job?" Rosy interrupted.

"The cactus guy?" Midnight stated. "He's not here right now, may as well do his job for him; Anyway, let's get going."

Rosy didn't give much of a response, and along with the rest of the group, simply followed Midnight's lead out of the valley and to the meadows.

 **V: Earthy Bites**

As the group made their way to Moonlight Meadows, Rosy made conversation with Midnight.

"Hey Midnight...just wanted to say, thank you for showing up when you did, if you hadn't, we'd probably would've been goners."

"Eh, we obviously couldn't have had that happen, you're the main characters, and obviously the one guiding this story won't kill you off."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Don't worry about it, it's beyond what you're aware of."

"I don't know...part of me has an idea of what you may be referring to, but i'm unsure on that side of it…"

"I see," Midnight replied. "Anyway, we're nearing the destination, shouldn't be long now."

As the group continued, Link began to whisper to Mosaic.

"Should Midnight really be the one leading our group?" Link asked.

"I think it's fine, he's shown on occasion that he can be a good leader like you or me can."

"True, but still, his carelessness, like him almost letting us be crushed by those rocks earlier makes me weary of that, he lives in a cave with nothing blocking it for crying out loud," Link explained. "Along with that, he acts kinda...I don't know, odd, a lot, like, I'm not sure if he's on our side or not half the time."

"Well, to respond to your first statement, that is kinda careless of him. And to respond to your second one...well, I think the best thing to do there is just continue to keep an eye on him. And well, despite these two things, he has a pretty good sense of direction and also is the only one who knows where what we're looking for is."

"Huh, well I guess you have a point…"

"Hmm, what were you two discussing?" Midnight asked.

"Nothing…" Link responded.

"Mhmm…" Midnight responded sarcastically. "Regardless though, I think you guys will find interest in-"

"Wait, guys...I hear something…" Hoops told the group, putting his head toward the ground.

"Huh, considering where you're hearing the noise from...I think I know what these are…" said Mosaic.

"The plant guys? You know, the ones with the teeth?" Rosy asked.

"Yep."

"Considering the pipes around here as well, I don't think you guys are wrong," Link inputted.

And right the group was, plant creatures, which in appearance were Venus fly trap-like, had a leafy green stalk topped with a white-spotted red head, bisected by a white lip mouth with sharp teeth began to sprout up from the ground, surrounding the group on all sides, emerging from the surrounding pipes on top of that. These were Piranha Plants.

Berry then said something in his language, looking over to the side of the hill they stood on.

"'Oh no'? Why do you say that Berry?" Rosy asked, then looking over to the side as well, seeing that he saw that Ptooies were making their way over to the hill.

They were really similar in appearance to Piranha Plants, with the only differences being that their full bodies could be seen and ended in two stubs that acted as legs, and they also lacked the leafy green "arms" that piranha plants had.

"Oh...that's why…" Rosy replied.

"Why did these guys have to bother us specifically?" Mosaic questioned.

"Well, we did sorta walk into their territory to be fair…" Hoops answered.

"True…"

"I don't see what you're all complaining about, the more action the better, besides, it's not like you've battled anything or anyone for awhile at this point," Midnight stated.

"Eh…" Mosaic responded.

"You sure?" Link asked.

"Guys, the plant gang is surrounding us, I suggest we act now," Rosy stated.

"You're right Rosy,"-Mosaic stated as he formed a ball of fire in his hand-"I'll start with this plant ri-"

Mosaic was cut off mid sentence however, this is because he was shot in the back with a spikeball from a ptooie, knocking out his firepower, denying him immediately.

"Know what? I'm not going to waste time talking and I'm just going to get to the point," Mosaic said aloud. "Midnight, you deal with-"

Midnight however, with the use of his telekinesis had already picked up a rock and threw it at one of the piranha plants, knocking them out.

"What were you saying Mosaic?" Midnight questioned.

"Nevermind, just fight them off, all of you," Mosaic instead ordered, somewhat unamused.

As of Mosaic's statement, the group then began to fight the piranha plants off, all heading in different directions, other than Berry and Rosy who teamed up.

Mosaic mainly used his ice abilities to freeze fireballs that were incoming his way and then hurl them back when given the chance.

Hoops tricked and outwitted the plants in multiple different ways with the use of his speed and agility, getting them to accidentally aim for each other instead of them with how hard of a target he made himself out to be.

Rosy and Berry teamed up in fighting them, Berry looked to get ground pounds where he could while Rosy played a more offensive game with them, running into them with her quills, dashing into them in a ball, giving Berry opportunities to pound on them, etc.

Link did quite the number of things to fend off the fly traps, shooting them with sword beams, rolling on the ground to dodge them, blocking spike balls from the ptooies with his shield, being sure also to not be sniped by the fiery ones, and being sure hits got in where they counted.

And Midnight finally unlike the others who were taking it seriously, wasn't really, and generally messed around with them. He grabbed their spike balls with his psychic powers and hurled them back at them, he grabbed some of the ptooies themselves and hurled them around, bashing them into each other, and at one point grabbed a ptooie, made a large leap into the air and slammed both himself and the ptooie into the ground head first, knocking it out.

In the middle of the battle however, the group hears something, which causes them to worry, as it sounds like another piranha plant, which it indeed was, it was a blue potted one, who thanks to the way they were rooted within the pot, was able to walk around freely in it.

"Oh no, is this their backup?" Mosaic stated worryingly.

What instead happened however suppressed the group's expectations. The piranha plant saw the group, and it made conversation with the other piranha plants and ptooies.

As a result of this conversation, the horde of sharp toothed plant life stopped bothering the group and returned to where they resided previously, back into the soil, back in their pipes, back down the hill, etc.

"Wow, they...all just...left," Mosaic stated.

"...I wonder why…" Link questioned.

Berry gave a similar opinion in his language as well.

"Maybe the blue guy realized we were too much to handle and decided they should all, almost quite literally, head for the hills," Hoops boasted.

"Well, my guess personally is that that blue piranha plant must have been more docile and friendly than the others were, and realized we meant no harm, and probably communicated to the others to let us pass," Rosy inputted.

"Guess that's possible too…" Hoops replied.

"Well either way, in my opinion, they ruined the fun, I was so going to clobber those plants but then he had to come along and break it up…" Midnight ranted, disappointed.

"Umm Midnight, aren't you going to lead us to that place you found?" Link asked, changing the subject.

"Oh...yeah, I was, follow me…" Midnight told the group, continuing to be their lead. Eventually soon enough, another tall hill stood before them...

 **VI: Blockade**

"The spot that I want you all to see should be on top of this hill," Midnight informed the group.

"Nice, we're here," Mosaic commented.

"So he hasn't been misleading us…" Link said quietly.

"Well here it goes, ready Berry?" Rosy asked.

In which he replied he is.

"If you guys don't mind, i'm going to run ahead and see what's uptop," Hoops said.

"Not even an issue, go right ahead," Midnight responded.

"Yeah, that should be fine Hoops," Mosaic replied.

The others gave similar opinions, but by that time, Hoops had begun making his way up anyway.

"Hey, Midnight, since we're already almost there, could you tell us what the thing you want us to see is?" Link asked.

"Okay, fair enough, it's something in a cave that I saw."

"Huh, I see…"

"Do you mean this Midnight?" Hoops, who had already made it to the top of the hill asked. "I...don't see an entrance…"

"What? Let me see, there should be a huge, gaping entrance right in front of it…" Midnight responded.

The rest of the group goes ahead of Midnight as well to see what Hoops was looking at, and indeed see a large formation of rocks on the hill, or so it looked like.

"Huh yeah, as Hoops has said, there doesn't seem to be an entrance…" Mosaic added.

Link however gave a closer look and informed the others on what he's noticed.

"It's not that there isn't an entrance, it seems more that it's blocked off by something, and that something seems to be a bunch of rocks…" Link added.

Midnight had made his to the top of the hill right when Link had mentioned it being blocked off and stated his dissatisfaction with it.

"The entrance is blocked?! Son of a- Oww!"

Before Midnight could however, Rosy had thrown a rock at him.

"Hey! Language Midnight!" Rosy lectured.

"Oh yeah...of course...this is a K+ fic...can't say that because of all the kiddies who'll probably read this now can I?" he responded, unamused.

"Yeah...whatever you say…" Rosy responded, still somewhat confused.

"Aaannnnyway…" Mosaic said aloud, breaking it up. "We gotta figure out a way to get rid of the blockade, since what you wanted to show us is in there correct?" he asked Midnight.

"Yes…"

"Okay, let's see, considering the formation, the entrance is probably elevated in a high spot…" Mosaic wondered. "Hmm, what if we had Link throw a bomb there?"

"Huh, might not be a bad idea, it often worked on cracked walls where me and Midnight are fr-" Link began.

"Then again maybe not...there's the possibly that we throw the bomb up there, and it just makes things worse and causes more rubble to fall…and along with that, even if it got the rubble out of the way, it's still too high up for any of us to really reach..." Mosaic then realized.

"Other than me or...Midnight I think?" Hoops commented.

"Yeah, other than you and Midnight," Mosaic added. "Anyway, the idea I've figured out is that we get a springboard from a question block or something, use it to get up to the entrance, and then…-"

"Move the rocks by hand?" Link asked.

"Well...yeah...unfortunately…"

"Well, I guess if it can't be helped, we should just get started, I, and i'm sure all of you guys really want to see what's in there."

"Agreed, and I think we should start by looking 'here'," Rosy stated, going over to a nearby lake along with Berry, then scouting it for a question block.

After looking a bit, Berry mentioned something.

"You see some? Where are they Berry?" Rosy asked.

Berry pointed over to the spot he saw them. Them being on a small spot of land surrounded by water.

Berry then, eager to get them, is about to dive into the water, but Rosy, noticing something about the water, stopped him.

"Wait Berry, stop..."

Berry asked why she stopped him, kind of upset.

As such, Rosy pointed out why she did.

The why was because, in the water, there were a bunch of fish, these fish were mostly red in color, other than the white, circular patches on their stomachs, had yellow tail fins, a mohawk-like dorsal fin and wing-like fins and finally, that had blue eyes and pink lips. These were cheep cheeps.

"Yeah, that's why I stopped you Berry, if we swim in the lake, we'll most likely be attacked by those cheep cheeps, and because of that, we'll need to find another way around. The only question is how..."

"Hmm, I see you guys are having a problem, let me handle it," Midnight stated, having now come over to the lake.

Midnight's eyes then began to glow a lightish blue color as he faced the water, and soon enough, waves of some kind began to pulsate from them as well and over to the Cheep Cheeps. In which the Cheep Cheeps' expressions changed to a blank, emotionless look and began to swim into a coordination that created a bridge over to the small spot of land the ? blocks were on.

"Huh...I guess that'll work...come on Berry," Rosy said, then going over the bridge of fish along with him to the spot where the blocks were.

They then opened all of the blocks...however none of them contained a springboard.

"This is a problem…" Rosy stated, then looking up. "Berry, could you throw me upward?" Rosy then asked.

Berry gave a yes in his language and picked her up. She spun around as he did so and then quickly hurled her up above the blocks, as to avoid hurting his hands.

Rosy's hunch was correct. Above the blocks was an invisible note block, and this very note block contained exactly what they were looking for, a springboard.

After landing on the ground, Rosy noticed the springboard.

"Wow, I expected things to work out and for there to be something hidden there, but I didn't realize it'd work out THAT well…" Rosy stated. "Anyway, Berry, help me out."

As such, both of the two pick up the springboard, with Berry then carrying it as they headed back over to Midnight.

"Hmm, so you found a springboard after all," Midnight stated. "How about we head back to the cliff now?"

"Let's get Mosaic, Hoops and Link first," Rosy responded. "Mosaic! Hoops! Link! We found a springboard!"

"Wow, that was faster than I thought it'd be," Mosaic stated. "Guess we should go meet them there now."

Which they indeed did and all made it back to the area in which the rocks resided.

"Alright, so to quickly review, me, Link, Rosy and Berry take the springboard up, Midnight and Hoops go up ahead, and all of us work on removing the rocks by hand, got it?"

Everyone gave either a nod or thumbs up in response, assuming they had hands that is.

"Alright, then let's get to it."

As such, Hoops began to climb up the rock walls while Midnight, preparing a huge jump, was able to make it up to the rocks. Mosaic, Rosy, Berry and Link then each got on the springboard and bounced up to a spot in which they could stand one by one and joined in by removing the rocks.

And soon enough, and in a short amount of time on top of that, the rocks were all removed, allowing them entry into the cavern, after some comments from each of them, wasting no more time, they all made their way in.

 **VII: Discovery**

The group when they made it into the interior of the dark cavern took a look around.

"Midnight...I'm looking around...I can't see what the thing you're talking about is," Mosaic expressed aloud.

"It should stick out like a thumb that's been smashed with a hammer, keep looking," Midnight responded.

"Okay, okay…" Mosaic replied.

"Guys, I think I found what Midnight is talking about," Rosy informed the group. "It's a warp pipe of some kind on the wall."

"Okay, because that's what Midnight clearly meant right?" Hoops responded sarcastically.

"I wouldn't have brought it up if it weren't for a detail about it, how about you guys take a look?"

"Sure thing, we'll throw away five seconds of our lives to look at something we've seen a bunch of times," Hoops responded as he made his way over with the others.

However, he was proven wrong when he and the others saw the warp pipe that Rosy made reference to.

This warp pipe was a different color than normal, it wasn't green, it wasn't red, infact, it wasn't any single solid color at all, but was some kind of swirling mix of red, green, and blue, or something of that sort.

"O-Oh...T-that...actually...is kinda interesting…" Hoops admitted.

"What did I tell you?" Rosy responded.

"That is a strange looking warp pipe…" Mosaic commented.

In which Berry agreed as well.

"Agreed Mosaic," Link added. "is this what you wanted us to see Midnight?"

"Mhmm, figured you'd find it on your own which is why I had let you take it from there, it really does stick out like a smashed thumb."

"Doesn't he mean sore th-"

"Whatever," Midnight interrupted. "Anyway, cut the chatter, don't you all want to see what's through the pipe?"

"I was...planning to to begin with…" Mosaic responded.

The rest of the group along with Mosaic gave varying inputs, however overall similar answers.

"Then let's get going, ladies first," Midnight responded, then giving Rosy a signal.

"Surprisingly polite coming from you Midnight, but okay," Rosy responded as she made her way into the pipe head first.

"Guess since I lead you guys here, I'll go in next," Midnight then said, somewhat squeezing through the pipe to make it through.

"I'll head in next," Link said, then crouching a bit to fit, making his way through the tunnel as well.

"I'll go next, come on Berry," Hoops told Berry.

In which Berry was fine with, and both then entered through the pipe.

"Well...guess that leaves me, let's just follow them," Mosaic said to himself, everyone else having entered the pipe other than him, which shortly after his statement, did so himself.

The six made their way through the dark enclosed tunnel for a good while, having a bit of chatter about different things like what they think is on the other side and other several random topics along the way.

After doing so for a good while, they eventually DID make it to the other side of the pipe. What they found on the other side was amazing, it was a land most of them had never seen before, a whole new world...

 **VIII: A Whole New World**

The other side of the pipe had ended right on the top, unbeknownst to the group on the top of a large mountain, Rosy, having been the first to enter the pipe, was also the first to make it out of the pipe. When she made it out, she decided to see the view, seeing they were high up, and seemed to be astounded by it.

"Guys! Guys! Look at the view! It's amazing!" she shouted to the others.

Hearing this, the others, who had still been within the pipe made their way through it quicker than normal.

Midnight got out of the pipe next, and hopped like he would over to where Rosy was instead of sliding like he normally did and as such was in short time able to see what Rosy was seeing.

"No...No...no way...we've...we've found it…"

Hearing Midnight say this, the remaining four in the pipe were more curious than ever now as Midnight generally never talked in that way to them. As such, Link hurried out of the pipe and took a look as well.

"I-…wh-what? I...I'm at a loss for words...I...I thought I'd...I'd never see this place again…b-but it really is..." he said, also taken aback by what he saw.

Hoops, Berry and Mosaic hustled quickly to get out of the pipe to figure out what the other three were gushing over.

Hoops got out, bringing Berry along, in which he rode on top of Hoops as the latter carried him and scuttled over to the cliff that the three looked over to see what they saw.

"...Woah…" was Hoops' thoughts.

Berry also found amazement in it, saying "oooo" in his language.

"Wait guys, wait for me, I want to see what you're all looking at too," Mosaic stated.

Once he got out of the pipe, he made it over and looked for himself.

"O-Oh…W-Wow..." Mosaic stated.

What the group had been taken aback by was a lush, green, grassy open field with occasional trees here and there stretching out as far as the eye can see. It was under a fresh blue cloudy sky, and far off in the distance, they could see more mountains like the one they stood on.

"I-It's beautiful…" Mosaic continued.

"Isn't it?" Rosy responded. "I'd even almost call it...breathtaking…"

"It really is something isn't it?" Midnight stated. "You know what this place is?"

"I don't…" Mosaic responded.

"Nope," Rosy answered.

"No idea…" Hoops told.

Berry gave a similar answer in his language.

"Well Link, how about you tell them?"

"Sure thing, this...is Hyrule."

"W-Wait...What?! You...you mean this is…" Mosaic began.

"Yep, indeed it is, it is the world in which Midnight and I are from."

"You guys live in this?" Hoops asked. "Needless to say, it looks like it'd be a cool place to be in all the time!"

"I wonder what Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad would say about this place if they were here," Rosy thought aloud.

"Them? You know, I think they'd find it amazing, and...and…..and..." Link began, but then slowing down before stopping all together and looking down mid sentence, to the puzzlement of everyone.

"Link? What's wrong?" Rosy asked, quickly taking notice of it.

"I...I...I can't stay here…"

"What!?" Everyone says in unison, shocked about his explanation.

"Wait? Link, why?" Rosy asked.

"Well...there's a promise I made to the rest of Team S.M.B.X," Link began to explain. "They...they need me, I promised them back when I first joined their group that I'd stick around with them."

"Wait, you made that kind of agreement with them? Why?" Hoops asked.

"When I did it back then, I didn't actually think we were going to well...discover a portal to our homeworld in some random tunnel."

"I...see…" Hoops responded.

"The issue is...even though I'd love to stay here, I can't just leave them behind on a whim."

Hearing the conversation go on, Midnight intervened.

"Okay bud, listen here a second," Midnight sternly said, using his psychokinesis to make Link keep eye contact with him. "Me and you have been looking for this place for months...MONTHS. And you're really going to tell you're going to abandon it again as soon as you find it just because of some agreement you made with your group almost a year ago?" Midnight continued, criticizing his decisions.

"W-well…-"

"I wasn't done Link," Midnight interuppted. "Another thing to consider is this, you could have the Mosaic Group inform them on where you went off to, i'm sure they'd understand if you did that."

"W-Well Midnight, the thing is, It wouldn't feel right to just abandon them like that without any kind of proper goodbye or warning of the sorts," Link explained. "What if I leave them right when they need me most?"

"Well that's simple, why don't they get someone else to take your place on the team?" Midnight suggested. "Like...that green dinosaur I see you guys sometimes hanging around with."

Berry then asked Midnight something in his language.

"Hmm?" Midnight responded.

"'Are you referring to Yoshi?' he asked," Rosy translated for him.

"If that's what the green dinosaur with the saddle is called, then yes."

"Well here's the problem with that Midnight," Mosaic intervened into the conversation. "Yoshi would have a hard time filling the shoes of Link in multiple ways," Mosaic began to explain.

"In the way of?" Midnight asked.

"Well for one, Yoshi doesn't exactly know how to speak english like Link can," Mosaic began to explain. "Second, Yoshi doesn't have a sword nor bombs does he?"

"True…"

"He also, no offense to him, isn't as good with directions as Link is," Mosaic continued. "And finally on top of all of that, I lack confidence that he could bear that big of a responsibility on such short notice.."

"He makes a lot of good points…" Link added.

Midnight thought about what the two said and remained silent for a bit. Once he thought for a bit, he spoke up.

"You know what? Fine, go ahead and run back to them, I won't stop you," Midnight answered.

"Well...alright then Midnight. I guess this is where we and the group part ways." Link responded.

"Yep...sure looks that way," Midnight replied. "When you change your mind, you and the group know where the tunnel that lead you here is, so with that said, guess I'll see you off."

The Mosaic group as well as Link stood near the pipe that they entered from, ready to leave in the order of Link, Hoops, Berry, Mosaic and Rosy.

"I'm heading back, I'll see you guys on the other side," Link told the group, entering the pipe before them.

"Hey Midnight, though I didn't know you for long, you were kinda interesting to be around, despite the...complications that came with it," Hoops told Midnight.

"Don't worry about it," Midnight responded.

"Well, see ya, come on Berry," Hoops then said, bringing Berry along with him to the pipe.

As the two left, Berry waved goodbye to Midnight, in which Midnight somewhat waves back by maneuvering a nearby rock back and forth with his psychic power.

"Well Midnight, I hope you enjoy being back home, we'll always be at the Mushroom Plains if you ever want to go back there," Mosaic gave Midnight as his parting words.

"Yeah, keyword, IF I ever want to go back there," Midnight responded.

"Yeah...Okay…" Mosaic responded, then heading into the pipe.

Before leaving, Rosy went over to Midnight and talked with him a bit.

"I guess this is goodbye," Rosy began.

"Well for now I would think."

"I'll simply tell you, watch how you use your mouth,-"

"What mouth?"

"You...know what I mean…anyway, try to stay out of trouble, and take care of yourself."

After saying this, she gave Midnight a small hug. He didn't think much of it, but understood Rosy's words anyway.

Rosy made her way back to the pipe and before entering it waved goodbye.

"Farewell," Rosy said.

"Yeah...farewell too I suppose," Midnight responded.

And with that, Rosy entered the pipe, making her way back along with the others.

 **IX: We've Got Plans...Big Plans…**

Rosy made her way to the other side of the pipe, where she saw that only Mosaic, Hoops and Berry were present. Rosy looked around curiously, and noticing the detail asked a question.

"Where's Link?" Rosy asked.

"I'm not sure, I'm guessing he must have run off after he got through the pipe," Mosaic answered.

"I imagine he really needed some time alone huh?"

"Well...what makes you say that?" Hoops asked.

"He looked really saddened to have made the decision he made, but it seems that he really considered it to be right in his mind so he still went through with it," Rosy responded. "As such, I don't think we should go trying to look for him and should just leave him be for now."

"Hearing that, I guess I understand your perspective a bit more."

"Regardless of where he has headed, we should really get home ourselves, it's probably like five or six o'clock in the morning by now, and we gotta get back for multiple reasons."

Hoops, Rosy and Berry, hearing Mosaic, are puzzled at his statement.

"Wait, what do you mean, 'multiple reasons'?" Hoops asked. "Even though one of the obvious is that we have to, well"-he said as he rubbed an eye due to being tired-"sleep…"

"After we all get some rest, we're going to prepare for something, pack up for it to be exact," Mosaic explained. "There's somewhere I want to go, not just for the sake of meeting someone new, but I feel we need a bit of time to get away as well."

"I...I may know where you're thinking of going and who you're thinking of meeting," Rosy responded.

"For now, I'll let you guys get some rest first, after that, then I'll give the details of what my plan is."

"Okay…" Hoops responded.

"Yeah, that should work," Rosy responded.

Berry didn't give a response, he was already sleeping like the baby he was.

"Now, I think we should head back."

"Home is...kinda far from here don't you think?" Hoops pointed out.

"From what I recall, there should be a pipe somewhere in Moonlight Meadows that goes to Vibrant Park, and at that point, we can make our way to our neighborhood, get home, and get some rest."

Yawning, Hoops then said, "Sounds like an idea, I'll carry Berry, lead the way please."

"Yeah…" Rosy said.

And as such, with Hoops carrying Berry on his back, the three made their way out of the cave to make their way to the pipe and of course, make their trip home.

" _ **With their nightly adventures having cometh to a close, the Mosaic Group parted ways with their two otherworldly buddies, having also learned more about them and where their world of origin was from. And having been tired after going on another journey the night after the other and wanting to not just escape for a few days, but meet someone new, were already making plans to go**_ _**on a**_ _**vacation.**_

…

…

 _ **Little did they know however they picked quite the untimely...time to take a vacation, as would soon be revealed to them...in time."**_

 _ **Next Time...Chapter 8: Pieces To The Puzzle**_


End file.
